Strength

"Strength doesn’t come from not caring.Strength doesn’t come from putting all your feelings in a box and closing the lid. Strength doesn’t come from declaring something or someone a tabu and not talking about it ever again. Those who are indifferent are lucky, but they are not strong. Strength is when you feel the pain cutting you wide open and you choose not to let that change who you are."

(Aurora Popovici, the main character from my book)

I was blessed with several wonderful friends.

There is one friend who gave me a few inspirational books. I do not believe in the power of positivity but I’ve read them all; I’ve liked some of those ideas and I’ve applied them successfully in my day-to-day life. However, I don’t believe in denying the unpleasant things happening in your life and trying to motivate yourself by feeling only what suites you. You can wake up every morning and let yourself embrace that day only what brings you joy, but that would be a lie. Ignoring pain will not make it go away, on the contrary, it will allow it to hit you even harder when you less expect it. You’ve got to acknowledge the wound, and nurse it so it won’t kill you.

And there is another friend who went bathing in the waters of Acheron and to whom I was telling about Charon’s boat. I believe as long as we are alive, we can have that boat carry us wherever we want to go. To the good side or to the bad side, to happiness or to depression. But we got to feel both of them in order to understand the legend. Denying pain is not crossing the river. Choosing to do only one thing at a time, choosing to feel only one thing at a time, that does not help to build bridges to the other side. Strength comes when you know both, you set the boat on fire and you walk on the water to the shore.