In the course of living with a disability, people are given the opportunity to discover many things about themselves. As a person with paralysis, I have learned that I possess a creative problem-solving capability to figure out how to pick up things that I have dropped, without losing my mind and my temper.
I have learned to ambulate when my legs are so tired that I can barely move them. I have learned to speak up when my rights as a human have been violated by others who may or may not see me as human. I have had the opportunity to grow into myself, discovering there are truly no limits to a person.
At this point, I suspect that you are saying, REALLY? Now I have to admit this is my experience and my reality. It may not be the same as yours. Yet, I believe it is the same for each of us. Sometimes recognizing what is right in front of us is the most difficult task we have.
8
Living life with a disability is a challenge and an opportunity. The challenge lay in finding out how to solve the many problems life throws at us in a reasonable or unreasonable fashion. It is about learning to adapt to our surroundings while maintaining one’s self-esteem and dignity in the face of societal obstacles.
No one volunteers to be disabled, yet it is a fact of life. The challenges of disability include learning to live with one’s own self-perceptions and adapting to the ever-changing circumstances of daily life in a society ill-equipped to deal with people who have disabilities.
The once-simple activities of daily living are now tasks that may consume more time than ever before. Walking, at one time taken for granted, requires a person with a severe, acquired disability to use a wheelchair, walker, or crutches to move about. It is an effort to move through the house, into the car, across the parking lot, or wherever one may be headed. A wheelchair, though cumbersome, saves energy and time.
Being a wheelchair user requires great flexibility, adaptability, and creative problem solving. These are abilities developed over time and through experience. NOTE: These are abilities, skills learned by people with acquired disabilities to improve his or her quality of life.
8
The great opportunity of living with a disability is the chance to teach the world what it means to live with a disability. Beyond the physical body, having a disability does not diminish a person in any way. A person’s growth is as limitless with a disability as it is without it, a fact that goes unnoticed by far too many people.
In every circumstance, in every situation, it is possible to live a distinctly human and unique life that contributes to the diversity and wealth of the human race. If a person lays paralyzed in bed, unable to speak, his or her mere presence can be the catalyst for growth and transformation.
Each person’s circumstances are different and at times challenging. Yet, what is possible in the face of seemingly impossible circumstances? What can one do when it seems nothing can be done? How does a person respond to such dire needs? How do the Disabled swim upstream?
8
In the face of insurmountable problems, a willing individual surmounts the problem by reframing the problem or approaching it from an entirely different angle. What if the question were: What is possible rather than what is not possible? ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE. The apparent answers may not be probable or likely, but they are possible.
In the face of excruciating pain, is it possible to manage a smile? In the throes of ongoing chronic illness or lifelong disability, can a person endure life’s ups and downs? While the world rushes to and fro, is it possible for a person with a disability to remain focused on getting from a building to a car? Does the snail-pace approach to mobility provide opportunities?
People with disabilities should be teachers and students, teaching themselves to live with a disability, teaching the world how to thrive with a disability, and teaching the community that living with a disability is as natural as any other part of living.
In the process of teaching others, it is also possible to learn valuable lessons. In learning, he or she becomes the student. It is a process that begins each morning upon awakening. Every one has the choice of whether or not to have an extraordinary day. With a choice like that, why would a person not choose the extraordinary day? If every day were an extraordinary day, think of how exciting life would be.
The choice is available to all of us. No one can make it for you. No one can push you down, unless you let them. To insure a better life for the Disabled it is up to each and every one of us to push forward.
Now you are probably saying, “How do I make my day extraordinary? What constitutes an extraordinary day?”
Well, one approach is to take an ordinary day and add something extra to it. What kind of extra? How about some extra love, extra attention to details, extra hugs, extra phone calls to people you care about, and extra smiles to everyone you meet. What is good about that is it only takes time and effort to put that “extra” in the day.
If there are things you have not done, do them. Chase a snail, jump out of an airplane, smile at a stranger, hug whatever you are close to, laugh at yourself, sing your favorite song, write a poem, lay in the grass, feel sunshine on your shoulders, give a part of yourself to the world and see what happens.
Wink at your caregiver, whisper to a loved one, say a prayer for a long lost friend, remember the first time you saw a sunrise, celebrate the fact that at this moment, in this place, with whomever you are with, you are alive.
Life is a gift; it is a short time in the span of existence. Enjoy, embrace, engage and make this moment, this day, yours. Make it extraordinary, because you can.
Barney has had MS for the past 15 years and learned that having the right attitude is the most important part of daily living. Also, he has learned the opportunities and challenges of living with a chronic illness. Barney is married and has one daughter. He is an author in hiding having been writing for many years but not really working at getting published.
