How does one measure strength? By how much one can lift or for how long? Is it the same for all strengths, even ones not physical? The strength of someone mentally strong or someone emotionally strong? Are they measured by how much burden one can carry or for how long they can endure carrying it?  

Is it stronger to carry the burden alone, to carry it by oneself until the point of exhaustion and then, even when tired, to continue to lift it still? Or is it stronger to have the courage to ask for help when needed? When the burden becomes too heavy for one to bare?

How does one measure inner strength? Is it by how much a person is willing to take or for how long they will take it? Does our strength come from our courage? Our Fears? Our Empathy? Our love? Our Pain? Our Passions? Our Struggles? Is it a strength to let something go, to give one thing up for the sake of another. Or is it a strength to keep one thing close and safe, to protect it from harm no matter the cost? 

Does it take strength to hold yourself back, or is it stronger to give something your all? Is it stronger to show your emotions, to have the courage to let others know whats inside? To speak up for oneself and for others when one has been wronged. To let them know how you feel or how they have wronged you? Or is it stronger to bury such emotions under for the sake of others, to keep the ones you care most about stable and steady, to be the bigger person and forget the person's transgression without a word? 

How is our strength measured? By time or by our experiences? By what we say, or what we do, or how we act or react, or how we feel. Do we become strong because we want to do the right thing, or we want what is right for us? 

Is strength the ability to keep going? To keep pushing through, despite what has been thrown at it, despite all the obstacles that have been in one's way? Despite the growing pain, one may feel? To keep moving forward even if there is no longer anything there to gain anymore?

Is strength measured in the ability to rise from the shattered pieces? To sweep them off of one's body despite the cuts, despite the wounds, regardless of the way they bite into the skin? To get back up, even after it and everything else has fallen apart? Even when one knows it will be broken all over again? 

Is it not better to walk away, to not push forward? Is it not better to stay down and not be broken? Is it a strength to know when you have been beaten? 

How do you measure true inner strength? By how long you stand, or by how many times you get back up?