Some people think it's holding on that makes one strong - Sometimes it's letting go

My last post was about making new friends, facing life's challenges with a sense of adventure and embracing the good times. Today, as I sat in my office, I couldn't help but think about some of the spouses of deployed Soldiers that I'd met at my new job/adventure. From the outside looking in I realized that while to them, their world is normal, it is in fact inspirational the way that they hold strong facing an uncertain future on many levels. I thought about the strength they have, for their deployed Soldier, their children and each other.

I started to wonder ... What is strength? What makes a person stay when others flee? What makes you strong enough to smile as you watch your love board a bus while you are being torn to pieces inside? What is it that parents left behind harness to tell their children with a smile that their daddy/mommy will be home soon, when they are scared themselves?

During the last deployment, so many people told me I was strong. They said they don't know how I could stand to say goodbye. I dismissed their comments with a smile, saying when you love someone you enough you willing walk the path they've chosen. But today, I decided to research it. In our history there are some many brilliant thoughts and quotes, and surely this would envoke a myraid of golden nuggets.

Here are some of the quotes I found in me research. Which one is your favorite?

-- "Love knows no limit to its endurance, no end to its trust, no fading of its hope; it can outlast anything. Love still stands when all else has fallen."

-- "Confront the dark parts of yourself, and work to banish them with illumination and forgiveness. Your willingness to wrestle with your demons will cause your angels to sing. Use the pain as fuel, as a reminder of your strength." By August Wilson

-- "Each time we face our fear, we gain strength, courage, and confidence in the doing."

-- "Anyone can give up, it's the easiest thing in the world to do. But to hold it together when everyone else would understand if you fell apart, that's true strength."

-- "Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage."

-- "Some people think it's holding on that makes one strong - sometimes it's letting go."

-- "Don't wish me happiness-I don't expect to be happy it's gotten beyond that, somehow. Wish me courage and strength and a sense of humor-I will need them all."

-- "Strength is the ability to break a chocolate bar into four pieces with your bare hands - and then eat just one of those pieces"

-- "Solitude is strength; to depend on the presence of the crowd is weakness. The man who needs a mob to nerve him is much more alone than he imagines."


Personally the two I identify with the most are:

"Storms make trees take deeper roots." By Dolly Parton

"Perhaps I am stronger than I think." By Thomas Merton

Until our next cup of tea ...