It is in the small things we handle.
When a child rides their first two-wheeler straight into a tree,
and gets right back up. Eating your first bite of real food
that actually went in your mouth. Talking to a boy,
even though all the girls in your class say he has cooties. I stood up.

Later,
if you have wanted to quit a sport
because you were like a pilot running on empty skills but kept going.
If you have seen the pain friends have gone through with relationships
and just want to hide in your own little
world of make-believe, but then you don’t.
If you have gone through what it is like to lose
a loved one that makes you think
you could never love again, but you do.

Later,
when you can no longer hide
from the angel of death
as if you were a mouse against a cat
you keep on fighting. Once you have fought until you have nothing left you will look back at everything you have done in life and have only the amount of energy left to smile as wide as the ocean.