Ode to Johanna van Gogh-Bonger | Ode to Jo (3)

She is strong.
Not because she can lift pounds, but because she lifts others when the world is too heavy for them.


Not because she can weather the storm, but because she teaches how to brave the storm and shows you how to do the same.
Not because she is unbreakable, but because after every fall, she always, always gets back up.

She is strong.
Not because she chose it, but because the world gave her no choice.
Because history told her that silence was safer, but her soul taught her that speaking is necessary.
She has walked through fire, fought wars that many will not understand, she has scars where there were once open wounds, and yet despite it all, she chooses to remain soft.

Her strength is not an accident; it is a legacy.

She is strong because her mother was, her grandmother was, because generations before her straightened their backs so she could stand.


Strong is she, who does not let her light go out, who fights for what she believes, for the woman she had to become in the fire that should have destroyed her.

Strong is she, who wears love like a second skin, courage women into her bones, and fire now coursing through her veins.
For her heart is not a fragile flower, but an ocean full of depth, full of waves that never break, only rise again and again.She is strong because she has learned that vulnerability is not a weakness but a superpower.
That her tears are not a sign of fragility, but knowing that daring to feel and all within her, is valuable.

She is strong because she has rebuilt herself from the debris of days when she thought she could do no more.
Because she has looked her demons in the eye and shown them that they no longer have power over her.

Strong is she, who refuses to bow to expectations that are not hers.
Who writes her own rules in a world that would rather see her smaller.


Strong is she, who does not let herself be tamed, who spreads her wings even when the wind opposes her.

She is strong because she is the hope of those who came before her, the voice of those who could not speak, the strength of those who could no longer fight.
She is not just a woman, she is a revolution.

Strong she is.
And nothing and no one can ever change that.