No One Fights Alone

Today, just as I was feeling low, I received two things in the mail:  something from my big brother and a letter from a good friend of mine.  I can't give you all the details of the letter from the good friend but I can tell you the gist.  She's someone I knew in high school and someone I also knew in college and she wrote me a letter out of the blue that was heartfelt and honest and for that I thank her immensely.  Basically she wrote about how she's going through some rough patches and how my blog and photographs and Facebook posts have helped her get through some of those rough patches.  I want to tell her how grateful I am that I could do that for her.  I want to tell her how I want to do that for everyone.  I want to tell her how her letter made me cry because I felt she understood completely.  She told me how vibrantly beautiful my spirit is and how amazing I am and I want to tell her how much I want to hug her for that.  How much I want to hug her for taking the time to write me such a beautiful letter.  So to this amazing young woman who wrote me this letter, you know who you are, I want to say you are amazing and you can do anything you set your heart to.  You have a fighting spirit and nothing can break it.  Believe in yourself and all that you want in your beautiful heart's desires is possible.  You are precious and unique.  Believe that.  And thank you, my sweet friend.

As for my big brother, what can I say?  He's got a beautiful, caring soul that has always been there for me.  He gave me one of those cancer bracelets that states, "No One Fights Alone!" on it's black band.  It may be for cancer but as my brother stated so wonderfully, "no one fights alone is applicable anywhere."  And he is right.  I feel alone so often it hurts like a festering stab wound.  And I know I'm not alone but I can't help feeling it most of the time.  But I now wear this bracelet always, never taking it off, so that I will always be reminded that I am not alone in this fight.  I love you, my big brother.  More than you will ever know.  He also wrote a beautiful poem to go with it that made me cry my eyes out and I share it with you:

In life we find seas that are so rarely calm

Yet our yearning for them to be so never lets it feel the norm

Then the skies darken

What had seemed unbearable is now deemed a warm blanket

Fate strikes and we are thrown against our will

We face the unknown, the unintended not ready and unprepared

The weight seems so great, these shoulders so slender

Strength comes in knowing no weight is carried alone

Reach out your hand to find another awaiting your grasp

As fears threaten and taken on the corporeal

We will lend our voice to cry out against the menace

Push at will, with all that can be mustered

I shall rise again, for I am

When all becomes dim, I shall remember

I done the armor the knows no blemish

I will suffer no defeat

I am not alone

No one fights alone.