We are survivors!

Is it just ME, or are you, too, hearing story after t\story about survivors?

Fascinating, these stories, that are truly so different, yet somehow, alike.

Well, thankfully, we survived the 2014 Winter Olympics.  Pre-game threats of violence dampened the spirit of many well before the athletes left their homelands.  Parents of many who had supported their children’s dreams of Olympic participation did not even travel to see those dreams fulfilled for fear of violence and threats of terrorism.

So, yes, thankfully, the world survived; the games began and were completed and all are safely back home, despite the heart-breaking stories that ran concurrent to the ‘Russian Olympics’ in neighboring and former member of The Soviet Union, Ukraine.  Sadly, not everyone survived there.

Four sibling orphans of Ukraine, who had already survived that which branded them as orphans did survive.  They survived and found a new home in Alabama, USA as an American couple adopted this family.  The new parents survived the daunting legal battles to adopt in another country, to be present during The Opposition uprising in Ukraine, hearing gun shots and bombs going off within half a mile of their hotel.  They have survived the separation of the new dad returning to The United States with  three of the children while his wife stayed behind to complete the adoption of the their fourth child.  They are surviving.

Last week marked the passing of the oldest living survivor of the holocaust.  At the age of 110, she who had endured more than anyone now alive on this earth can imagine, survived by virtue of her love of music.  In her lifetime, she not only survived the unbearable conditions of a Nazi concentration camp, she survived all that life thereafter would put in her path.  I cannot help but wonder how many times she may have asked herself, “Why me; why did I survive?”

This morning, I saw an early news report honoring three young American girls who had been held hostage for more than a decade in such an inhumane way that they bore the heartbreak of separation from the entire outside world, they survived cruel and tormenting treatment, rape, starvation, fear and neglect.  They survived.

What is it that gives any one the courage, the perseverance, the hope to survive so much pain, so much confusion, so much loneliness, so much cruelty?

I don’t have the answer to this question, but to hear of these three stories – and there are others – in as many days, makes me believe there is precious little one cannot survive when the will to do so is strong enough.

Could I?

I pray to never know; I pray the same for you.

But this I believe:  we are all survivors.  We all have the capacity to endure more than we dare to imagine.  We all can pull from that strength we never knew we had until the moment demands that we do nothing less.  We are survivors.

What is takes to survive is the will to do so, the belief, against all odds, that we can, and that survival is worth it.

What makes survival impossible is lack of will, lack of faith and believing there is nothing worth surviving for.

While the three examples described above are extreme by all standards, remember them when you feel things are too hard, the odds are against you, that you are not deserving or that life is not worth it.

I do think I have an answer for that…you are wrong.    

So, IS it just me, or do you, too believe – with all your heart – that life is a game worth being part of and while we are not likely to win in every moment, survival is always possible and it is always worth fighting for.

Survival; it’s a decision