Beautiful, Strong, and Calm.

“Life is hard, but you all know that,” The woman says as she laughs, yet she is nervous. I don’t know her, but I’ve never been more proud. She continues softly, her voice cracking, “That’s why we’re all here isn’t it?” She pauses, half expecting a reply, but she knows the rules. The silence compounds as I sit and listen. She cannot see me, nor I her, but her words are as audible as my thoughts when I am alone.

She begins her story, and soon I see through her eyes. I feel the pain in her voice, and it is my own. She lived a life rejected, a life half-loved. Now she is free. She struggles each day to get to work on her bike, and each day she must summon courage from a well of which she knows at any moment could run dry. I hear her voice again and it speaks in my vision – our vision.

“I couldn’t help but stop, it was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. It was still early morning and the fog was slow to melt atop the forest floor. It was then I saw a deer, a doe.” The woman smiles as she recants the memory. “She didn’t run, she just stood there. Her eyes looking deep into mine. She was so beautiful, strong and calm.” I hear the woman begin to cry. “That’s how I want to be,” she says. “Beautiful, strong, and calm.”

So here’s to you, whoever you are, wherever you are now. Your words were powerful, unique and heartfelt, just like you. Your story took a strength many could never muster, a strength you possess. So know this - Whenever you doubt and whenever your well runs dry, know that you are beautiful, strong and calm. You always will be, because you always were.