Thursday, January 3, 2013

People are miraculous!


Over my years on this planet I have had the good fortune to meet people who surpassed their physical limitations beyond all others expectations! The first that I recall is a man in his twenties that had lost all but two fingers, or better said his thumbs and his pinkies on his both hands in a fire cracker accident when a mere child. He was remarkable in the sense of his musical abilities, he was a classical pianist and played for us on our piano when he came for a visit to our home in NJ, his Dad was a fellow fireman with Hubby there. Oh, I forgot to mention it was a stop over since he was with his new bride on their way to South Africa where his degrees in animal husbandry would be put to good use on an animal preserve; impressive. Fast forward many years later here in Florida on this coast, meeting a woman in her late fifties who had been diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis when a twenty-one year old. She had married, given birth to twin daughters and even had a foster child along the way, while going through by last count nearly thirty joint replacement surgeries. We called her the bionic woman and the energizer bunny, mostly due to her also being a volunteer now for over forty years with the Arthritis Foundation teaching classes, training people, fundraising and all around know-it-all, but in a good way. Which led her to having credits in medical literature and also having cable TV and radio shows that I was able to be on each, but only a couple of times. A few years back they finally hired her as a staff member. Another, a man, comes to mind too, an in-law of my old neighbors from Paramus NJ, never had the pleasure of meeting him. He went on and on in spite of amputations of both legs and fingers due to a bacterial infection, he was an author and teacher too. Although, for me the most unforgettable first impressive person who also was not fictitious, but I never met either, was Helen Keller. I think I mentioned this before, I had read the Miracle Worker in play form when I was around twelve years old and I was definitely impressed! And my father, on a rare occasion, was the one who took me to see the movie with Patti Duke as Helen and Anne Bancroft as Ann Sullivan, her teacher; they came alive to me with those incredible portrayals; anyone who saw that knew anything could be possible. Most recently someone posted a person who was an artist who drew with their feet since they were armless. And today I posted another miraculous story of love of life no matter what by a woman who wrote her memoirs with her only able moving part, her thumb, since she has very little of her joyous time left due to ALS. http://shine.yahoo.com/secrets-to-your-success-20120120/paralyzed-als-susan-spencer-wendel-writes-memoir-beauty-194500854.html We as human beings don’t always utilize what we have to the fullest extent; sure I am guilty of that myself. But what all those people have in common is a form of ‘tunnel vision’, in a good way, meaning having a desire to have a purpose no matter what, perseverance. GOD BLESS THEM ALL! We should all have that rub off on us… I believe that strength comes from within and they are born with it, like many other virtues, it cannot be taught. And sadly not all of us have it, but do know enough to admire it when we see it displayed so vibrantly! While we all contemplate our navels or think about this year’s resolutions we should take a breath in time, to allow ourselves, to absorb the true heroes of this world, not sports figures or music or movie stars, but people with extraordinary super hero powers of strength and resolve and attributes to be cloned and spread throughout this world for they are whom we should all aspire to be, but alas emulating is all we can do, since it is a rarity in nature and appears to be inbreeding that many of us do not have, especially me…sadly. On that note of many high notes, allow me to be the very first to wish all of you a very happy good night and ask you to kindly count all your blessings and share your overages with the victims of Hurricane Sandy and we will too! And next time please be here or be square, ya hear?! PS The Sandy Hook children went back to school today and we all have high hopes for their progress into recovery; with our love and concern never faltering for them. Hugs and kisses all around.

Speaking My Mind: Which way will the war go?

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