Today I was looking at a family picture. We were gathered
for an incredibly difficult event. When I looked at the picture, at each sweet
face in the photo, the events of the occasion flooded through my memory.
Agonizing days. Wondering how we would get through it. Wondering how it would
end and when it would end. Laughter and stories and hugs and gentle hand
holding. Food grabbed on the run and shared in hallways and hotel rooms.
Sobbing and wailing, phone calls and questions for direction, and months that
followed of how will we do the next
thing. When I looked at my image, for the first time since I was a young woman,
I saw myself as an incredibly strong woman. Remembering how I stood in strength
to lead my family, to protect them, to provide for them, to shelter them, to
make necessary decisions because they had to be made……I saw this smiling
strength shining through what I knew in reality to be balancing between broken hearted and
steel magnolia. Wow! Healing revelations. I am strong. There have been
many…..MANY. ….m.a.n.y. people in my
life who have tried to break me, take me, own me. To tell me that I am NOT
enough. That I cannot……but I am learning. I can do hard things. Love a quote
from one of my favorite blogs “Momastary”……”We can do hard things. Carry on
Warriors!” You,....yes, I'm talking to you.....you can do hard things too. I believe in you....Carry on warrior....You've got this.
