You see someone struggling to walk and crippled, I see someone who was told they would never walk.

The thought hit me as I was driving home from work recently. I was driving along my mind shifting from the stresses of the day and the upcoming stresses of the next day. I wasn’t particularly dialed in to my introspective self not was I looking for a life altering epiphany.

In the distance I saw a women crossing the road, as I got closer I could see she was moving very slow with every step labored and shaky.
I watched her as I passed and was overcome by the thought that at some point in life, maybe at birth, maybe after a terrible accident but at some point that she would never walk. Maybe her parents wrestled with the statement that their child would never walk, maybe her kids and spouse sat in a hospital room as the doctor delivered the news. Just maybe every step taken is another victory, a testament of what is possible and the strength and power of the human spirit.

I believe it’s human nature to see a struggle like that and look on with sympathy or sorrow at how bad life must be. Yet we have it all wrong, the pain is not the sorrow producing kind of pain. The pain the struggle they are of the mountain climbing type. The pain of hope, the pain of proving the doctors, the circumstance, the statistics, the whole world wrong.

If you were to tell a person that has faced the darkest of circumstances that you feel sorry for them, I can tell you the response you’ll get from that individual is that they feel sorry for you, because you may never now how much power you have and what you are capable of overcoming. I can say that with conviction because in many ways I am that person.

Scott