Song 'I will survive' by Gloria Gaynor
https://youtu.be/zPPqEHj997w

“Some people believe holding on and hanging in there are signs of great strength. However, there are times when it takes much more strength to know when to let go and then do it.”
― Ann Landers

"Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will."
- Mahatma Gandhi

"Strength is a matter of a made up mind."
- John Beecher

"Each of us should do something every day that we do not want to do but we know we should do, to strengthen our backbone and put iron in our soul."
- Henry Hitt Crane

"Nothing stops the man who desires to achieve. Every obstacle is simply a course to develop his achievement muscle. It's a strengthening of his powers of accomplishment."
- Eric Butterworth

Still I Rise
by Maya Angelou

You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may tread me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I'll rise.

Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
'Cause I walk like I've got oil wells
Pumping in my living room.

Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I'll rise.

Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops.
Weakened by my soulful cries.

Does my haughtiness offend you?
Don't you take it awful hard
'Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines
Diggin' in my own back yard.

You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I'll rise.

Does my sexiness upset you?
Does it come as a surprise
That I dance like I've got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?

Out of the huts of history's shame
I rise
Up from a past that's rooted in pain
I rise
I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HiE4lt_DUY

“One of the most powerful lessons in life is to recognize that no one can give you power, and many people don’t want you to have it. You have to find the courage to seize it, own it and hold on!”
― Shannon L. Alder

“God has ALREADY given you the strength you need, it's up to you to recognize that you were BORN a conqueror!”
― Yvonne Pierre, The Day My Soul Cried: A Memoir

"When you are required to exhibit strength, it comes."
- Joseph Campbell

"Life only demands from you the strength you possess. Only one feat is possible - not to have run away."
- Dag Hammarskjold

MainMessageForToday
Within us, we each have the strength to survive in this world. Use your gifts.

From the song 'Bridge of Light' by Pink (featured in the movie 'Happy Feet Two'):

Let's not let our anger get us lost,
And the need to be right comes with way too high a cost.

That's when love can build a bridge of light,
That's what turns the wrong so right,
That's when you know it's worth the fight.
That's when love turns night time into day,
That's when loneliness goes away,
That's why you gotta be strong tonight,
'Cause only love can build us a bridge of light.

https://youtu.be/iYb1R4Q4ou0

"My strength is as the strength of ten because my heart is pure."
- Lord Tennyson

"If you make a habit of sincere prayer, your life will be very noticeably and profoundly altered. Prayer stamps with its indelible mark our actions and demeanor. A tranquility of bearing, a facial and bodily repose, are observed in those whose inner lives are thus enriched. . . . Properly understood, prayer is a mature activity indispensable to the fullest development of personality . . . . Only in prayer do we achieve that complete and harmonious assembly of body, mind and spirit which gives the frail human reed its unshakable strengths."
- Alexis Carrel

"To be capable of steady friendship or lasting love, are the two greatest proofs, not only of goodness of heart, but of strength of mind."
- William Hazlitt

"Tenderness and kindness are not signs of weakness and despair, but manifestations of strength and resolution."
- Kahlil Gibran

“Life will break you. Nobody can protect you from that, and living alone won't either, for solitude will also break you with its yearning. You have to love. You have to feel. It is the reason you are here on earth. You are here to risk your heart. You are here to be swallowed up. And when it happens that you are broken, or betrayed, or left, or hurt, or death brushes near, let yourself sit by an apple tree and listen to the apples falling all around you in heaps, wasting their sweetness. Tell yourself you tasted as many as you could.”
― Louise Erdrich, The Painted Drum LP

“Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.”
― Lao Tzu

“It is good to love many things, for therein lies the true strength, and whosoever loves much performs much, and can accomplish much, and what is done in love is well done.”
― Vincent van Gogh

“The more loving we can be, the more powerful we become.”
― Silvia Hartmann

“One who smiles rather than angers is always stronger.”
― David Schary

MainMessageForToday
Love, tenderness, kindness are all manifestations of strength. Love much.

Song - I Didn't Know My Own Strength by Whitney Houston
https://youtu.be/FD8__N7Eq7M

"The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong."
- Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi

"Never does the human soul appear so strong and noble as when it forgoes revenge and dares to forgive injury."
- Edwin Hubbel Chapin

"Nothing is so strong as gentleness, and nothing is so gentle as true strength."
- Ralph Sockman

“Sometimes you don’t realize your own strength until you come face to face with your greatest weakness.”
– Susan Gale

“You're going to meet many people with domineering personalities: the loud, the obnoxious, those that noisily stake their claims in your territory and everywhere else they set foot on. This is the blueprint of a predator. Predators prey on gentleness, peace, calmness, sweetness and any positivity that they sniff out as weakness. Anything that is happy and at peace they mistake for weakness. It's not your job to change these people, but it's your job to show them that your peace and gentleness do not equate to weakness. I have always appeared to be fragile and delicate but the thing is, I am not fragile and I am not delicate. I am very gentle but I can show you that the gentle also possess a poison. I compare myself to silk. People mistake silk to be weak but a silk handkerchief can protect the wearer from a gunshot. There are many people who will want to befriend you if you fit the description of what they think is weak; predators want to have friends that they can dominate over because that makes them feel strong and important. The truth is that predators have no strength and no courage. It is you who are strong, and it is you who has courage. I have lost many a friend over the fact that when they attempt to rip me, they can't. They accuse me of being deceiving; I am not deceiving, I am just made of silk. It is they who are stupid and wrongly take gentleness and fairness for weakness. There are many more predators in this world, so I want you to be made of silk. You are silk.”
― C. JoyBell C.

"By nature we have no defect that could not become a strength, no strength that could not become a defect."
- Goethe

"My attitude is that if you push me towards something that you think is a weakness, then I will turn that perceived weakness into a strength."
- Michael Jordan

MainMessageForToday
Strength may lie in unexpected places. A perceived weakness could be a strength.

From the song 'Don't Need You To Tell Me I'm Pretty' by Samantha Mumba:

I don't need you to
Tell me I'm pretty to make me feel beautiful,
I don't need you to
Give me your strength to make me feel I'm strong.
I got all of this strength that I need here
inside my own two hands,
All that I want is your love and respect for who I am,
What I really need
Comes from deep inside of me.

Don't need you to tell me I'm pretty to make me feel beautiful,
Don't need you to make me strong 'cause I'm strong all on my own,
Doesn't come from outside,
This beauty I know,
Comes from inside my soul.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuCIcIQmBgU

"Few men during their lifetime come anywhere near exhausting the resources dwelling within them. There are deep wells of strength that are never used."
- Richard E. Byrd

"There is no limit to what you can imagine. And with commitment, with effort, what you can imagine you can become. Put your mind to work for you. Believe that you can do it. The world will tell you that you can't. Yet, in your belief you'll find the strength, you'll find the ability, to do it anyway."
- Ralph Marston

"He who believes is strong; he who doubts is weak. Strong convictions precede great actions."
- J. F. Clarke

"No one can defeat us unless we first defeat ourselves."
- Dwight Eisenhower

What a story. Highly recommended.
I am so happy that music (rap) was a release for him.....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trcYKxj48HA

"Man must be arched and buttressed from within, else the temple wavers to the dust."
- Marcus Aurelius Antoninus

"I was always looking outside myself for strength and confidence but it comes from within."
- Anonymous

“In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.”
― Albert Camus

“You have power over your mind - not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.”
― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

MainMessageForToday
Strength comes from within.

From the song 'Stronger (What Doesn't Kill You)' by Kelly Clarkson:

You think you got the best of me,
Think you've had the last laugh,
Bet you think that everything good is gone.
Think you left me broken down,
Think that I'd come running back,
Baby you don't know me, cause you're dead wrong.

What doesn't kill you makes you stronger,
Stand a little taller,
Doesn't mean I'm lonely when I'm alone.
What doesn't kill you makes a fighter,
Footsteps even lighter,
Doesn't mean I'm over cause you're gone.

https://youtu.be/Xn676-fLq7I

“That which does not kill us makes us stronger.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche

"Do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger men! Do no pray for tasks equal to your powers. Pray for power equal to your tasks."
- Phillips Brooks

“Anyone can hide. Facing up to things, working through them, that's what makes you strong.”
― Sarah Dessen

A strong woman -

I’ve experienced this firsthand. When I first joined Facebook, there was a well-read blog out in the Valley that devoted some incredibly serious pixels to trashing me. Anonymous sources called me a liar, two-faced, about to ruin Facebook forever. I cried some when I was alone, I lost a bunch of sleep. Then I told myself it didn’t matter. Then everyone else told me it didn’t matter, which just reminded me of one thing: they were reading it too. I fantasized about all kinds of rejoinders, but in the end, my best and only response was just to do my job and do it well. When Facebook’s performance improved, the trash talk went away. ...
I hope that you navigate the hard times and you come out with greater strength and resolve.
- Sheryl Sandberg, Commencement Address at Barnard College, 2011
http://www.graduationwisdom.com/speeches/0100-sandberg_commencement.htm

"All the adversity I've had in my life, all my troubles and obstacles, have strengthened me. . . . You may not realize it when it happens, but a kick in the teeth may be the best thing in the world for you."
- Walt(er) Elias Disney

“You feel your strength in the experience of pain.”
― Jim Morrison

“Life doesn’t get easier or more forgiving, we get stronger and more resilient.”
― Steve Maraboli, Life, the Truth, and Being Free

MainMessageForToday
Trials and tribulations strength us. We grow stronger when dealing with troubles, obstacles and adversity in our lives.

Sounds like she needs some #strength.....

From the song 'Breathe' by Anna Nalick:

2 AM and she calls me 'cause I'm still awake,
"Can you help me unravel my latest mistake?,
I don't love him. Winter just wasn't my season"
Yeah we walk through the doors, so accusing their eyes
Like they have any right at all to criticize,
Hypocrites. You're all here for the very same reason

'Cause you can't jump the track, we're like cars on a cable
And life's like an hourglass, glued to the table
No one can find the rewind button, girl.
So cradle your head in your hands
And breathe... just breathe,
Oh breathe, just breathe

2 AM and I'm still awake, writing a song
If I get it all down on paper, it's no longer inside of me,
Threatening the life it belongs to
And I feel like I'm naked in front of the crowd
Cause these words are my diary, screaming out loud
And I know that you'll use them, however you want to

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAlWxZK-ps4

"I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. 'Tis the business of little minds to shrink, but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death."
- Thomas Paine

“Promise Yourself

To be so strong that nothing
can disturb your peace of mind.
To talk health, happiness, and prosperity
to every person you meet.

To make all your friends feel
that there is something in them
To look at the sunny side of everything
and make your optimism come true.

To think only the best, to work only for the best,
and to expect only the best.
To be just as enthusiastic about the success of others
as you are about your own.

To forget the mistakes of the past
and press on to the greater achievements of the future.
To wear a cheerful countenance at all times
and give every living creature you meet a smile.

To give so much time to the improvement of yourself
that you have no time to criticize others.
To be too large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear,
and too happy to permit the presence of trouble.

To think well of yourself and to proclaim this fact to the world,
not in loud words but great deeds.
To live in faith that the whole world is on your side
so long as you are true to the best that is in you.”
― Christian D. Larson, Your Forces and How to Use Them

"You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, "I lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along." . . . You must do the thing you think you cannot do."
- Eleanor Roosevelt

"God does not take away trials or carry us over them, but strengthens us through them."
- Pusey

"Where there is no struggle, there is no strength."
- Oprah Winfrey

"He knows not his own strength that hath not met adversity."
- Ben Jonson

Theme for the week 8/2 - 8/8: #Strength.