As the night grew darker, the stars began to light up the sky.   The woman, lying on her back watched the transition and reflected.  How did I get here? She wondered to herself.  It seems like so long ago that I was lying in a hospital bed.

Years earlier, the young woman was in a car accident.  She spent months of her life in a coma of which she has no recollection.   When she awoke in the hospital, she realized she could not move her legs.   Now, she is sleeping under the stars after a long hike deep into the woods.

I am so grateful, for the things I once took for granted.   In the past, I was so busy with my career that I didn’t take the time to watch the sunsets, or the moon risings.  I can’t remember if I ever laid on my back and just looked at the stars.

Now she was camping under the stars.  If needed, se had a tent that she pitched in the event it rained, but she seldom used it.   This was becoming a regular routine in her life and she noticed how everything else just seemed to fall into place.

In the past, I would spend most of my weekends working.  I thought that would get me ahead, but now I seldom work beyond normal hours and I have been promoted twice!  It’s interesting how your attitude and your beliefs is what becomes real.  I now believe that I work hard when I’m at work, and play hard when I’m playing.  That is much different from my old approach of spending lots of time at work, but not really working hard the whole time.

As the stars grew brighter and started to consume the night sky, she thought about her recovery after her coma.  The first day she met her physical therapist, Joe, she thought he was an angel sent from God.  I could not believe his smile, she reminds herself.  When I first met him, he was treating me as though I was his only patient, not to mention the only person in his life!  He treated me like I was the most important person in the entire world!

Then, he started to have me do exercises.  It started with him moving my legs and all, and eventually, he made me stand without having any strength or feeling.  In his mind, he was teaching a toddler to walk.  It was not a matter of “if” but “when” I would be walking again.  I could not believe his patience and his persistence.  Later, I found out that he had lots of patients and treated all of them as well as he treated me.

Eventually, with his persistence and with her determination, she was able to walk again.  Now, just a few years later, she is climbing mountains.  Wow, what a difference a few years, and an attitude change can make.

Later that night, she crawled into her sleeping bag by the fire.  She decided that she would learn from Joe and attempt to treat everyone in her life as well as he did.  That was a decision she made just moments after meeting him.  A decision that has served her well.

As she zipped up her sleeping bag, she turned and gave Joe a kiss.  He was already asleep as usual.  Maybe all that kindness makes him tired, she thought.  After all, they had been coming on this hike for over a year now – beginning shortly after they married.

“Thank you,” she whispered in his ear.

He smiled, and replied, “No, thank you!”

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InspiraCard

When we learn to see the positive in the world, we can begin to live it.  There are many people who can be our teachers if we open our eyes to the possibility of being a student!

Written, Wed, Mar 23, 2016, 8:11 – 8:25 AM MDT