As we start to grow old the perception of strength changes due to circumstances. When I was at my youngest I believed that to be strong it is necessary never to ask for help or to give up. I thought that to say that I need help it will be an act of cowardice and a proof of my weakness. I believed so before it was all finished. But as I hit my fiftieth year I began to understand that strength was not always looking to conquer the world or dominate. Sometimes being strong meant simply getting up the next day. It meant I'm strong enough to live another day. Giving the best you could even when your body and soul screamed to quit.
I remember one night in particular a night that seemed like any other in the long journey of life but really wasn't. That night I was faced with many burdens some that involved money and some that involved my family. I was rethinking major life decisions that I had made and by the time evening came I was absolutely exhausted. I was sitting in the dining room brooding over my life making my best attempts to relaxed and stay calm when my little daughter came to me. She had a school project and she needed help. I did not want to help. I did not want to recognize her existence. I wanted to be alone left to myself to find the meaning of life. But she kept coming back to me. "Baba please will you just look at this once, " she asked. I decided to let go of my desires and listened to her.
I helped her and as she explained what she was doing with such enthusiasm I forgot all about my troubles if only for a moment. Then my wife came to me and soon my other daughter and we spent the rest of the night laughing playing and talking about silly small things. Joy is not something that can be often found in great achievements of goals. Sometimes happiness was found in the little things in life the simple things. As I laid in bed that night I began to contemplate how easy it can be for someone to believe that one day defines or destroy them. I thought about how we let our fears dictate to us and I realized that as I grew older I had learned a very important lesson. You can't stop the storm but you can decide that one storm will not define who you are as a person.
Whenever I feel like I can't overcome a trial I remind myself of all the storms I have overcome before. And there have been many. I have made bad mistakes hurting people. I have been worried about money, if I did the right thing. There has been times been nights where I didn't know what the morning holds and there have been days I felt as though I have already given up. But I'm still here.I have my wife and my two little girls who depend on me and that is what pushes me to get up every morning. It isn't always found in great victories but in the little things. Sometimes strength is found in taking a walk with my wife or telling my daughters a bedtime story or finishing that project you put off for too long or simply standing up again after a long day and trying one more time. I think that is the evolution of growing up. It is realizing that you can carry the weight of your burdens your fears and your failures and still move on. It is finding the strength not to be defeated in the face of adversity.
You don't have to find strength in everything you do but I have learned to always look for it. Because even the smallest amount of strength can carry you through the day.
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