Of Pillars and Roofs

It's not just about fighting the huge battles. It's about getting through the little stuff, day by day by day. It’s about the little things that stop mattering (who does the dishes, who does laundry, who takes out the trash) and the little ones that start mattering more and more (post-it notes, love SMS’s, catnaps and snooze alarms together).

We don’t stand strong alone or by ourselves, we seek strength – it’s not a single pillar, it’s a whole roof held up by pillars, and that’s how we stand steady. There are several others holding us up, even when we don’t know it. When one pillar weakens, the rest toughen up.

Being lonely and being alone might be two different things, and we learn to deal with both – perhaps that strengthens us as individual pillars. But you gotta know where to look to find another one standing. We crumble when we cast our hopeful little glances in the wrong direction. We’re more careful thereon, but then we’re never quite done building foundations, are we?

It’s all very romantic to say "I stand alone and I am strong" – you will, because survival is instinct. That’s courage, and we all have times in our lives when we use it because we have the will to live and be happy.

Real strength is a network. There is a power in togetherness that no distance or space can defeat.