On Being Strong

"Be Strong".
What does it mean when we are told to be strong in times of duress, when the chips are down, when life is especially exceptionally challenging...

"Be Strong".

It doesn't mean not feeling icy fear.

It does mean to take a deep breathe and to work through those feelings of terror that stalks our hearts and endeavors to paralyze us from foward thinking and action.

To be strong means staring right into the dark abyss of an endless black hole and daring to confront the cold Unknown.

To be strong means to accept whatever circumstance or situation is presented to us with a stoic sense of knowing that this is what is meant to be and so it is.

To be strong means to give our concerns up to whatever Higher Power is in ultimate control. It means an infinite trust in the universe that things will somehow, someday be made right as it should be.

I don't understand, nor will I perhaps ever understand why this is all happening to someone I care so deeply about, and hence, it is happening to US, and each person who knows him, but it is happening, and I must be strong, because he is so very very strong. And I will learn from his example.

There is where the circle comes back around, for as he is strong, I am strong, and I can be strong for him.