“When life throws curve balls at you, do not try to dodge them. They are meant to hit you, to mould you and to shape you to become the person you are meant to be. Enjoy the impact, smile and move on.” – Zainab Hussain
No body can throw better curve balls than life.
When I receive these curve balls – I turn melodramatic!
When my one-man pity party is in full swing, I need a lift.
A lift in attitude.
A boost that will give a kick up my gluteus maximus to get me back on track.
This is when I turn to these three incredible human beings.
Jean-Dominique Bauby
At the peak of his career, Bauby suffered a stroke. The stroke left him completely paralysed. The only way he could communicate with the outside world – was with his left eyelid. Bauby wrote a best seller from this position.
He dictated his book, blink by blink and ended up writing “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly”.
“The Diving Bell and the Butterfly” was not only a international best seller but also was turned in to a movie that won Golden Globe and got Oscar nominations
Francis Tsai
Here is an excerpt from Wikipedia:
In 2010, at the age of 42, Tsai was diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. The ability to move his arms and hands was lost due to the disease; he hasn’t held a pencil since early 2011. He discovered he could digitally paint on his iPhone with his right big toe while holding the iPhone with his left foot.[23] Once he lost ability to move his feet, Tsai began using the PC Eye from Tobii in conjunction with a Kiosk Tablet to communicate. By early 2012, Tsai began creating art again using the eye-gaze technology with drawing programs Sketchup and Photoshop.[24] His eye-gaze art has been featured in the media including CNN and computer art magazine ImagineFX (August 2013).
Stephen Hawking
Unlike Bauby and Tsai, Professor Hawking uses his cheek to interface with his computer. He tirelessly works to advance technologies that have the potential to help others.
These amazing human beings have powerful inner strength to not only accept where they are but to keep moving forward to contribute to the world in immense ways.
My curve ball suddenly lost its ‘curve’.
Nothing is as bad as it seems first.
I am eternally grateful to these men and others like them who constantly remind me that it is not what happens to me that counts: It is what what I do with what happened to me is what counts.
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