In life I try not to judge the people around me. For you never know what road they were forced to walk. Today for me that point was driven home by a conversation I had with a man I have always considered to be very strong.  He was telling me that his Stepmother had passed.  As one would expect of a woman in her eighties.  But when he spoke of her and indeed when he ever speaks of his father…. I hear a sadness there. I had always believed it was because of the distance between them.  Tonight I saw a lot of what was under there. I still think he is strong, but perhaps there’s a reason for the strength. Perhaps in seeing  the vulnerability in the ones we see as strong we can allow more in ourselves.  We try to hold ourselves,  I think,  to impossible standards. Many  end up depressed because of said impossible standards. So for today I will accept my vulnerable side. I will stop pretending that all i am always strong. How about you?