The Strength We Don’t Know We Have
Sometimes strength is a word we reserve for big moments—surviving heartbreak, rebuilding our lives, facing loss, standing back up after the unthinkable.
But the older I grow, the more I realize that real strength usually shows up long before we ever name it.
It appears in the smallest places:
In the morning we get out of bed even when grief presses heavily on our chest.
In the quiet breath we take before answering a difficult question.
In the way we show up for others while still learning how to show up for ourselves.
We don’t notice it at first. We don’t recognize that the tiny, steady choices we make—choosing honesty, choosing rest, choosing to keep going—are actually the earliest forms of courage.
And so often, the world doesn’t see those victories.
But we feel them.
Somewhere deep inside, a wiser part of us whispers, You are doing better than you think.
When I look back on my own life, I can see now that the moments I assumed were my weakest were often the ones carrying the strongest threads of who I was becoming.
I didn’t feel brave at the time.
I didn’t feel resilient. I felt lost, tired, and unsure.
Yet those were the moments shaping the woman who would eventually find her footing again.
Maybe that’s how strength works—quietly, steadily, without asking for applause.
So if you’re walking through something difficult right now, please remember this:
You don’t have to feel strong to be strong.
You don’t have to see the progress to be making it.
And you don’t have to have everything figured out to be moving forward.
Sometimes the greatest strength we have is simply refusing to quit on the days when life feels heavier than our hope.
And that, more than anything, is what carries us through.
End-of-Reflection Block
This reflection echoes themes from my memoir, Gathering the Pieces, about loss, resilience, and the quiet strength that carries us forward.
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— Lennie