I like to pick up heavy stuff and put it down

Strength

What does it mean? To be strong? A show of strength, is that being strong? The opposite of Strength is Weakness, so Weakness is the opposite of Strength? Right? "I bench 4000lbs" (yeah I put an extra 0 in there to see if you were paying attention) Is the true show of strength muscle bound apes lifting heavy things and then putting them back down again?

I don't know what it "means" to be strong, what I do know is there are people who are stronger than I. I'm not talking about lifting heavy stuff, or being faster, or whatever your measuring stick might be. I am talking about fortitude, the kind of stuff that real people are made from. Forged if you will. Forged out of stone. The aunt that is fighting cancer, the cousins that lost an adult son, the family friends that lost a father and husband. That is true strength, the kind that gets one out of bed in the morning when there is no reason to get up. The power to look another day in the face and hope that you have another one tomorrow. I know nothing of this strength, I marvel at these people in my life and I question. How do they do it? Strength. Where does it come from? If I ever need this kind of strength will I find it?

In our daily lives we get too caught up in the small stuff, we forget the big picture and focus on the unnecessary. It's too easy to care about stupid things and forget what is real. Reality is not always unicorns, rainbows, and sharks with lasers. It is pain, suffering, dark and cold, and it takes strength to live.

 Getting up when you have been knocked down is Strong. Trying to get up when you can't is Strength.