You’re a strong woman.
Your skin is thick. It is armor. You put it on in the morning and don’t take it off until you go to bed at night. You swat away words that sting and hurt as if they are flies that can be squished.
When life throws you hurdles that break your spirit, you pick up the pieces and make something new, something beautiful, something stronger.
People lean on you. They come to you for advice. They seek your wisdom when everything seems to be falling apart at the seams.
They look to you for praise and approval when they have achieved or accomplished something they wish to celebrate. You are their shelter in their storms.
Yours are the arms that hold them up, that hug them close, that lift them higher. Your arms can withstand the weight, for they are strong.
You’re a strong woman – and sometimes, just sometimes, you’d like to be allowed to be weak every once and a while.
Sometimes, just sometimes, you’d like to take off the armor. You’d like to not have to swat away the words. You’d like to stop building from the pieces that have been smashed.
Sometimes, just sometimes, you’d like to not be the sounding board for everyone around you. Sometimes, just sometimes, you’d like to not have to hold everyone else up. Sometimes, just sometimes, you just want to rest.
Sometimes it’s exhausting being strong all the time, and you just need a break.
At times, weakness can mean lacking in strength. It can mean that you’re tired. It means that you physically cannot do something. That you just need to slow down.
That you cannot keep up the juggling act, the running around, the constant chaos that has become your life. Maybe your weakness stems from an illness. Maybe you’re just exhausted.
Maybe it’s both.
But you know that? It’s ok. It’s ok to rest. It’s ok to take a break. That doesn’t take away from your strength. It does not mean that you are no longer strong. It just means that you’re tired.
You’re allowed to be tired, too.
At times, weakness can mean that you have a tendency to self-indulge in certain things. You have a weakness for margaritas, for chocolate, for pizza, for men with green eyes, for women with black hair. Whatever your indulgence is, it has always been framed as a weakness. But maybe it’s time to shift your mindset.
Sometimes you need to indulge. And that’s ok, too. Everything in moderation, of course.
At times, weakness can be describing a quality or feature regarded as a disadvantage or fault. I ask you – who out there doesn’t have a fault?
There is no perfect person in this world. Not one. Think of the strongest men you know – I promise you that they have weaknesses, too. This doesn’t diminish their strength, but rather it just illuminates their humanity.
The same goes for women, too.
I hope you give yourself permission to let your humanity shine. I hope you know that your true strength lies in the ability to own, and share, and stand in your weaknesses. For if we cannot see where we are weak, it makes it all the more harder to see where our strength lies.