Mamacita: I don’t know if I’m strong enough for this.
Dooley: Of course you are.
Mamacita: I don’t feel strong.
Dooley: It’s okay not to feel strong.
You can feel strong and not be strong. You can be strong and not feel strong.
So, what is strength?
Here’s the Dooley Noted definition.
Strength is an exhibition of power on a platform that is mobile and stable in all the right places. To move but to not lose your balance – all the while you’re building.
Strength is not the absence of weakness but the recognition that one can do even more, be even more, work even harder.
Strength is carrying on, even when giving up is easy.
Strength is a process, not an endgame. It’s not an event you withstand or a goal you reach.
Strength is within you. Strength is an exhibition of you at your best even when the cards are stacked against you.
Strength is not the absence of walls but the tenacity to plow through them.
Mamacita, I watched you work a full time job, then come home to a full time job as a mother. I watched your life for the past 35 years.
I watched you give me life – then watched as a brain mass and stroke attempted to take your life.
I watched as you always moved forward – enduring – as life threw its punches.
You are why I am here. You have shown me the power of a woman.
You = Strength.
You are the definition.
– Dr. Kathy Dooley