Here\'s to us, all the walking wounded,
With wounds that are deep yet so close to the surface,
The slightest trigger can cause them to bleed.
Some wounds are fresh, others lifetimes old.
Some have scarred over, no longer painful.
Others fester, and seem never to heal.
Some wounds so painful to our very core,
As to drain our spirit of the will to live.
Yet we put one foot in front of the other,
Although we are staggered from time to time,
And welcome an occasional shoulder to lean on,
We manage to find the strength to press on.
But what, we may ask, is the point to this struggle?
And the answer, as always, comes from within ...
Is our strength not derived from a deep inner knowing
That wounds are but lessons we\'ve chosen to learn?