Strength

I have witnessed strength.  Not the typical form of strength that one might run across on a daily basis.  I am talking about a different kind of strength; a strength with depth, originating from places within the heart that some of us never even knew existed.  This strength can only come from one place...love.  I have looked into the eyes of determination, a woman so strong she would do anything, no matter how unimaginable it could be, just to give her child a chance at life.  I have felt the spirit of this strength fill a room, and overflow into the adjacent hallways, changing the lives of people who never even saw it coming.  The world is not the place that it has always been for me.  It is forever changed.

My wife spent 6 days in the hospital dilated at 8+ cm.  She laid on that hospital bed for countless hours at an incredibly steep angle, well beyond anything resembling a form of comfort.  Head below feet, she fought contractions day in and day out, not paying any mind to the cold hard fact that our very first child would be slipping out of it's home inside her womb 15 weeks early.  She would whisper in my ear reassurances that it wasn't over yet.  She would console me, even though she was the one doing all of the work.  She brought a joyous smile to the face of every human being that dare step foot into the hospital room she called home.  She displayed a strength I have never seen before.  During that short time period...which felt like an eternity, my wife, even in her nearly incapacitated state, guided me though some of the toughest decisions of our life.

I used to think strength was forceful and loud, emitting powerful waves as it pulsates through time.  I have learned that it is not this way at all.  I never really understood.  True strength is quiet and peaceful.  Strength smiles at your and speaks without words.  Strength comes from deep within, from a storage capsule tucked away inside the human body and saved specifically for moments like this...