I don’t think Pooh bear thinks of himself as strong and yet we all know that there’s a strength to him that defies his stuffing and his cuteness.
Finding myself confronted with my very broken son, people have asked me, “How are you?”
It’s hard to respond. I don’t quite know what to say. I didn’t fall from a wall. I don’t have fractured bones and my brain is relatively well.
“How are you going?” they’d ask kindly. Let me assure you there were times I sobbed and ached and hurt like I’ve never hurt before but for the most part, I was ok. Not ok, per se, but very aware of this deep strength within me.
Exhausted but getting up each day to go to the hospital.
Frightened but, hearing my son’s sense of humour still coming through, I could still laugh.
Strength has many expressions.
Maui from Moana comes to mind as does ‘The Rock’ the voice of Maui.
So does Mother Teresa 
But I’m certainly no saint.
But there is a strength in me that rises when my children need me. A strength that emerges when dear friends are hurting. There is a strength that only those who’ve known true and deep hurt know how to rise from and then give.
It’s in the giving that the strength lies. I suspect you, who are reading this now, might know that deeper strength within you. It might not always show but it’s there. You’re being around each day clearly demonstrates it.
And some days will require more of us.
This season requires more of all of us. Covid19 is scary. Staying completely isolated requires true grit from some of us.
Being in a different country that has staggering rates of infection and death is scary.
But there is a strength in me that is stronger than it seems at first. A strength to keep going.
A strength to cry
A strength to laugh
A strength to grieve
A strength to pause
A strength to confront
A strength for the truth
A strength to hug and hold
A strength to let go
A strength to walk along side
A strength to listen
A strength to guide
A strength to hope
A strength to love
That’s quite a lot for a bear of little brain…. Pooh bear has all this.
So do I
Do do you.
Much love and strength to you
Sair
She is still brave 