6- Emily G: Power, Weakness, and Peace

 

The idealized version of strength is dictionary defined as the capacity of an object or substance to withstand great force or pressure. However, strength can be represented in not only power of solidity, but also through weakness and peace. 

There is silent strength in weakness. To have the capability to pick your cold body off the bathroom floor after a hard night, is strength. To have the capacity to form a smile across your face even with the world trying to bleed you dry, is strength. To have the ability to get out of bed in the morning, even if it feels more like a chore than a habit, is strength. To simply get up every single day, burnt out with no motivation, and continue to go to work, to school, or even go down the hall to sit right back down on the couch, is anything but weakness. There is a profound sense of strength within all physiological drawbacks and to have the mind power to simply be, inside times meant to challenge you, is still progression of power, no matter how little progress is being made.

There is also silent strength within peace. To be at peace is to have the perspective that "yes, this thing that utterly sucked has happened but there is nothing I can do about it", so instead of being strung up on the what ifs, you are strung up on "it is what it is" mentality. This mindset takes an exponential amount of mind power, as it is a natural human instinct to fix anything that seems to be altered and to disregard that urge is bundling up all of the deep emotions to create stability and be at peace with things you cannot change. Living in peace requires intellectual strength because everyone at peace with all of the decisions and regrets they withhold has crossed and burned bridges to get there; to be at peace with your conscience is the biggest human challenge. 

Silent strength, to me, is majorly represented within weakness and peace, as not everyone considers strength to be there but it is, existing as an unsaid drive toward progress. There is power within frailty and tranquility, as the road to those destinations are paved with broken paths and car wrecks. 

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