Tuesday, June 30, 2009

My Journey

For Today's Talk About Tuesday I thought I'd talk about my journey as a person with disabilities. More Talk About Tuesday posts can be found here.

For everything you have missed, you have gained something else, and for everything you gain, you lose something else.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Nobody can bring you peace but yourself.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Don't be afraid to go after what you want to do, and what you want to be.
But don't be afraid to be willing to pay the price."
Lane Frost


These quotes have me thinking today. What is the price of the inner peace I crave? Will I ever find it? One day but until then I must remember that Life is short, break the rules, forgive quickly, kiss slowly, love truly, laugh uncontrollably, and never regret anything that made you smile (from an email).
In particular, the quote from Lane Frost relates to the way I see myself and my journey with my disabilities. I have to work harder than many people to get to wear I am today but I am not afraid of that but I wonder sometimes at what cost I have done that and to whom that cost was? Myself or society? Sometimes I wonder if I would be better off if I had bowed to societies’ expectations that I can’t do anything because of my disabilities or that I should/could use my disabilities as an excuse to do as little as I can. But then, I think about the opportunities I have had either because of the fact that I see myself as ‘normal’ and try to act (and be treated that way) as much as possible, or things that I have gotten to do as a direct result of my disabilities, and I realise how lucky I am.

Some of my experiences have happened later in life than they do for other people but they happen anyway and I guess they are more special because I have had to wait.

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