What I’ve learned, if anything, is that life will inevitably throw curve balls at you. If seen as an opportunity rather than an unfair challenge is that those curve balls can be used to knock it out of the park! Sure I can no longer work because I can no longer see except for a tiny sliver out of my left eye. However I can use the new opportunity afforded by disability to write my story in my book “Malformation: when bad things happen to the right kind of people” available at www.mymalformation.com. Sure I’m no longer able to drive, but I can utilize my cane and other resources to walk through our neighborhood and encourage others who may be lonely and otherwise despondent in this time of imposed isolation from CoVid19. Sure my educational prospects have waned because of loss of vision but I can invest in the next generation bringing up awareness, compassion, and encouragement for the next generation. Expressly, we are all going to die, some of us sooner than others. Rather than focus on that sobering and inevitable event though, I choose to live out the rest of my days in hope for tomorrow. Hope that the next generation will find a cure for HHT, for general AVM, and for the early detection of this disorder. I choose to live out my dream of seeing my wife fulfilled in her career and encouraged in her pursuits. I choose to see my children launched from this home into the world armed with the hope of the Savior and the knowledge that this life in only a preparation stage for the rest of forever. So, to sum it up, I choose to believe that this life, though difficult to be sure on days, is only temporary. If I live to be 75, that means I have 27,375 days on this earth. As I’m 40 now, I’m past middle aged. Therefore, I have 12,775 days left. With my remaining time, I will be a testimony to those who come after that this life is hard but not impossible. These circumstances are difficult but not insurmountable. The drive needed is bound up in discovering the reason exists beyond yourself. The motivation for life is finding the One Who is beckoning you and I to come to Him all along. Jesus said “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” My reliance on Someone outside of myself has helped me see that it is necessary to reach out, and always understand that there is One Who answers always!
