My father is older than most fathers who have children my age. But you wouldn't know it by looking at him. He has taught me so much about life. My father is an incurable dreamer and workaholic. He has never given up on believing that anything is possible for a single day in his life.

My father will be 80 years old in two years and he still works over 40 hours a week healing people. Remember the doctor on "Little House on the Prairie"? My father is a lot like him. He lives in community of poor farmers and I can imagine him taking vegetables in exchange for his Chiropractic treatment. He is selfless in how he treats his patients. I used to think that this was so stupid of him, that he was letting himself get taken advantage of. He has always worked so hard at taking care of people and making them feel better. He sometimes spends hours on one patient in exchange for money that most doctors would use for 15 minutes of their time.

My father is also an inventor. He is still planning on creating new things. His mind is always working. He is always willing to take risks or leaps with his ideas. He believes in what he does and feels that it is his calling in life. This is why he still has the energy to take care of all those people.

Sometimes I wish I could be more like this: selfless, loving, so very alive. I tend to get caught up in the fear that I am giving too much and it will be taken away. I think that I have to preserve some of my generosity. I build up walls that my lover, my friends, my co-workers cannot break through. I think that this will make me strong somehow. But I am still who I am underneath. I am this tiny person that has fear, covered with anger, covered with those false barriers of inpenetrability. Strength is in vulnerability. It makes me feel vulnerable to give or to let other people see who I am- to be that naked, that public with myself. If you look at the Strength card in the typical tarot deck, a woman is shown placing her head inside a lion's mouth. She knows that the lion could easily bite her head off. She surrenders to this possibility. This is the hardest lesson to learn: Strength is not in fighting, in shielding yourself from what could be painful; Strength is in surrendering to your fear and choosing to love unconditionally, knowing that this love you are giving is a reward and a gift to yourself, as well as others.

My father has taught me a lot about love. I am learning to be as patient with people as he has been. I am learning to love without always keeping score. No. He's not perfect. I often wish that he had spent more time at home and less time in the office. I often wish that he had listened to me more, especially when I was a teenager. But I know that in who he was and still is, he was doing everything he did out of love for his family. He was working so hard in order to provide for us. And try as I did to shock, alienate him, get his attention, make him angry with me- he was always so calm about my actions (this used to drive me crazy!) and still loved me as much as before.

Now that I am out of the house and all grown up, I am learning to respect my father for the warm, compassionate wonderful human being he truly is and not think of him as such a fool, a dreamer, a man obsessed with his work. I guess that means I'm getting old. . .

"Strength doesn't arise from physical power, but from unshakeable willpower."
Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948), indian lawyer, leader of indian liberation movement

Undoubtedly wise words from a wise man. On the other hand this doesn´t mean that musclepower is something only idiots consider as worth to gain for.

In fact, everybody who ever had a try in hard blue-collar working or was seriously engaged with sports knows that you need lots of self discipline to do this regularly for a longer period. Otherwise you could as well just let it be.

Assumed you agree to that point, figure that self discipline is nothing else but willpower. It's not mind over matter.

It's mind and matter!

It's resistance.

Overcoming.

Concentration resulting in rivers of sweat. Pain that clears your mind when you finally realise you have made it. You have merged with exhaustion. You taste the goodness of having nothing more to give than you have given right now.

Physical strength often is tightly linked to a strong will. It can also be a statement of deep respect to nature, which is always challenging strength of any means to meet its sometimes raw and wild aspects. It can even be a statement for the love of life. This is the only explanation for the survival of men like Andreas Niedrig, who mutated from a heavy junkie with a ten-year career in this obsession to one of Europe's best triathletes. Need i to tell the story of Lance Armstrong? The winner of 1999 Tour de France had been given a 50/50 chance of surviving when the doctors told him he had testicular cancer in 1996. Dig that, it's almost unbelievable!

To draw a conclusion, i suppose that physical strength is something that shouldn't be underestimated. It is well worth considering to move your ass and suffer some aching muscles or getting a stitch. Maybe it won't necessarily save your life, but it will definitely shake it up a bit.

KANJI: RYOKU RIKI RII chikara (strength, effort, power, strain)

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Character Etymology:

Originally from a pictograph of an arm with bulging biceps, simplified and later styilzed to the character's present form. See also the character for male/man.

A Listing of All On-Yomi and Kun-Yomi Readings:

on-yomi: RYOKU RIKI RII
kun-yomi: chikara

Nanori Readings:

Nanori: jikara tsutomu

English Definitions:

  1. RIKI, RYOKU, riki(mu): strain, bear up, exert one's strength; swagger, bluff, boast.
  2. tsuto(meru): serve, fill a post, serve under; exert oneself, endeavor, work; be diligent; play (the part of).
  3. chikara: strength, energy, force, power; agency; authority, influence; vigor; stress, emphasis; exertions, endevors; help, support; ability, faculty, capability; means, resources.
  4. riki: strength.
  5. -ryoku: strength, power.

Character Index Numbers:

New Nelson: 521
Henshall: 74

Unicode Encoded Version:

Unicode Encoded Compound Examples:

力学 (rikigaku): the study of dynamics or mechanics.
能力 (nouryoku): ability.
人力車 (jinrikisha): rickshaw, a human powered transport.

  Previous: stand  |  The Japanese Kanji Metanode  |  Next: forest

Lust, or more traditionally Strength is associated with the Hebrew letter Teth. Teth means serpent and ennumerates equally in the system of Kabbalah with the word for messiah.

Lust is also associated with Leo, the sign which is the very epitome of energy and life. It is also worth noting that 11 is considered the number of magick by Aleister Crowley.

The picture shown on the card is the Lady Babalon and the Beast conjoined.

Other associations:
Egyptian deity: Horus
Greek deity: Demeter
Hindu deity: Vishnu(Nara-Singh Avatar)
Precious stone: Cat's Eye
Plant: Sunflower
Animal: Lion (Cherub of Fire)
Roman deity: Venus who represses Vulcan's fire
Magical power: Training wild beasts
Vegetable drug: All carminatives and tonics
Perfume: Olibanum
Magical weapon: Discipline

All information taken from Aleister Crowley's Sepher Sephiroth, first published by Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC in 1973.

Strength (?), n. [OE. strengthe, AS. strengu, fr. strang strong. See Strong.]

1.

The quality or state of being strong; ability to do or to bear; capacity for exertion or endurance, whether physical, intellectual, or moral; force; vigor; power; as, strength of body or of the arm; strength of mind, of memory, or of judgment.

All his [Samson's] strength in his hairs were. Chaucer.

Thou must outlive Thy youth, thy strength, thy beauty. Milton.

2.

Power to resist force; solidity or toughness; the quality of bodies by which they endure the application of force without breaking or yielding; -- in this sense opposed to frangibility; as, the strength of a bone, of a beam, of a wall, a rope, and the like.

"The brittle strength of bones."

Milton.

3.

Power of resisting attacks; impregnability.

"Our castle's strength will laugh a siege to scorn."

Shak.

4.

That quality which tends to secure results; effective power in an institution or enactment; security; validity; legal or moral force; logical conclusiveness; as, the strength of social or legal obligations; the strength of law; the strength of public opinion; strength of evidence; strength of argument.

5.

One who, or that which, is regarded as embodying or affording force, strength, or firmness; that on which confidence or reliance is based; support; security.

God is our refuge and strength. Ps. xlvi. 1.

What they boded would be a mischief to us, you are providing shall be one of our principal strengths. Sprat.

Certainly there is not a greater strength against temptation. Jer. Taylor.

6.

Force as measured; amount, numbers, or power of any body, as of an army, a navy, and the like; as, what is the strength of the enemy by land, or by sea?

7.

Vigor or style; force of expression; nervous diction; -- said of literary work.

And praise the easy vigor of a life Where Denham's strength and Waller's sweetness join. Pope.

8.

Intensity; -- said of light or color.

Bright Phebus in his strength. Shak.

9.

Intensity or degree of the distinguishing and essential element; spirit; virtue; excellence; -- said of liquors, solutions, etc.; as, the strength of wine or of acids.

10.

A strong place; a stronghold.

[Obs.]

Shak.

On, or Upon, the strength of, in reliance upon. "The allies, after a successful summer, are too apt, upon the strength of it, to neglect their preparations for the ensuing campaign." Addison.

Syn. -- Force; robustness; toughness; hardness; stoutness; brawniness; lustiness; firmness; puissance; support; spirit; validity; authority. See Force.

 

© Webster 1913.


Strength, v. t.

To strengthen.

[Obs.]

Chaucer.

 

© Webster 1913.

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