As tough as... Candy Floss

Life's bumpy speed bumps and the big bad world creates the need to be as strong as the next obstacle. The funny thing is, sometimes no matter how hard we try, the little things wear us down. When I was little, I looked through brown innocent eyes at the grown ups around me. My heroes. I thought that it was impossible for a black cloud to snatch their joy because they were too strong, too bold and too tough. When life seemed too heavy to carry, I saw the cracks they believed were cemented closed.

As the years aged away in my life, I began searching for answers. It seemed that the impossible would be breached if my heroes could not handle the big "life". Tears fell from green eyes, brown and black eyes. Impossible. I thought everyone always HAD to be TOUGH. No time to take a break- the little insecurities, losses and missed opportunities were not supposed to be bigger than us to break us down. It turns out that through those brown innocent eyes, I was wrong.

How could I have missed it? At most, in some small way, we are as TOUGH as Candy Floss. We are sweet at our very core. As soft as touchable pink. And as melt-in-the-mouth we all crumble- at some point. Candy Floss gives one that feel-good feeling of being a playable child with sticky hands and the notion that beyond the sky- there is no limit. Like Candy Floss, when it has endured too much of the heat and being trapped in its bag, we shrink without our permission. The need to re-boost, to re-charge and to begin again becomes a certainty.

Being as tough as Candy Floss, seems like to weak of a comparison to award the heroes in my life. However, if they had been as "tough as nails" or "as strong as super glue", I would not have learnt that life can push one beyond one's extreme and when that happens, even if one falls one has to get up again, try again, be brave again.

My heroes have woven what I believe became the steel material that keeps a building from falling as the bases for my life ahead. Being as strong as "whatever" turns out not to be worthwhile enough. Searching and holding on to what makes you "as strong as" defines your strength to endure, to challenge and to participate in your own life. How cool is that?