It always ceases to amaze me how life is a giant ripple effect. One thing always leads to another and has a way to continue for a long time - affecting both yourself and those around you.
Yesterday I had a really rough day. I somehow managed to get myself into a little bit of car trouble while driving to work in the morning. I was exiting onto the Anthony Henday when my car started swerving recklessly back and forth. I ended up driving into a peg and then snow plowing into a ditch. I managed to remain calm, but for the rest of the day I was walking around in a bit of a comatose state. I was pretty upset about the whole thing and didn't even realize it until I tried sleeping last night. I kept tossing and turning and just had an uncomfortable feeling within myself. I spoke with friends and they all said the same thing - that tomorrow was a new day.
This morning I came to work to attend a United Way meeting. We had a guest speaker who - within 15 minutes managed to get me to change my mindset. This guest speaker's name was Quinn and she told us her story of where she is now and how United Way has helped her within her life. Quinn is currently a parapalegic and has been for about 9 years. For those of you who don't know what a parapalegic is - it is someone who loses motor function from neck down due to a spinal injury. She indicated that the injury occured while she was driving through the mountains. She had gotten to the top of the mountain and had realized that she was extremely fatigued. She decided to exit onto a rest area to get some shut eye, when she accidentally fell asleep at the wheel. All she remembers is exiting onto the rest area and waking up in the hospital. Apparently she had driven herself off a cliff and was flung from her vehicle.
Quinn's personality was one where it was go go go. She did a million things at once, and most importantly she did all of these things alone without any help. When she woke up at the hospital the only thing she was able to move was her eyes. She indicated that this was the lowest point of her life because she went from being independant to completely dependant on others. She was in the hospital bed with machines beeping around her when she noticed a door opening and someone gliding towards her. She managed to turn her head and see someone who was in a wheel chair. He leaned towards her and whispered in her ear - " It's going to be okay ". From then on she really did believe that it was going to be okay.
With the help of United Way, Quinn has accomplished many things in life. She is the first parapalegic to graduate from Post Secondary and is currently working at three different jobs, and also plays " Wheelchair Rugby - aka murderball ". She has approached life in a more passionate way - pushing through and surpassing any limits that might be in her way. She said that we should all try very hard in life and if we fail - to get back up and keep trying. As I've always mentioned in previous posts - life throws us several different situations and we have the choice to either learn from it and move on ( develop ourselves better ), or we can not do anything and dwell on what could have or would have been. Personally I like the first choice.
It is funny how timing of everything happens. Things really do happen for a reason and it's really up to us to just step back and view the bigger picture, rather than dwell on the small things that might not necessarily matter.
I gotta say I've really learned to just lay back and go " more with the flow " rather than fight change. Now that's not to say that I just sit back and take a joy ride. I work very hard at everything I do in life and I'm always trying to better myself on several different levels.
I think we all need to be like Quinn and live life fervously - the only thing that can hold us back is truly ourselves. We need to find our passions and really enjoy them and just live each day as if it were our last. Life is a gift that we should all be thankful for - It is the mistakes that make us stronger - and really it is up to us to get back on our feet.
xo
The more you discover the world around you,
ReplyDeleteThe more you discover the world inside of you.
Fay Mah
xoxoxox