GIVE UP?...NEVER!~~~~
What if at the age of 46 you were burned beyond recognition in a terrible motorcycle accident, and then four years later were paralyzed from the waist down in an airplane crash? Then, can you imagine yourself becoming a millionaire, a respected public speaker, a happy newlywed and a successful business person? Can you see yourself going white water rafting? Sky diving? Running for political office?
W. Mitchell has done all these things and more after two horrible accidents left his face a quilt of multicolored skin grafts, his hands fingerless and his legs thin and motionless in a wheelchair.
The 16 surgeries Mitchell endured after the motorcycle accident burned more than 65 percent of his body, left him unable to pick up a fork, dial a telephone or go to the bathroom without help. But Mitchell, a former Marine, never believed he was defeated. "I am in charge of my own spaceship," he said. "It's my up, my down. I could choose to see this situation as a setback or a starting point. "Six months later he was piloting a plane again.
Mitchell bought himself a Victorian home in Colorado, some real estate, a plane and a bar. Later he teamed up with two friends and co-founded a wood burning stove company that grew to be Vermont's second largest private employer.
Then four years after the motorcycle accident, the plane Mitchell was piloting crashed back onto the runway during takeoff, crushing Mitchell's 12 thoracic vertebra and permanently paralyzing him from the waist down. "I wondered what the hell was happening to me. What did I do to deserve this?"
Undaunted, Mitchell worked day and night to regain as much independence as possible. He was elected Mayor of Crested Butte, Colorado, to save the town from mineral mining that would ruin its beauty and environment. Mitchell later ran for Congress, turning his odd appearance into an asset with slogans such as, "Not just another pretty face."
Despite his initially shocking looks and physical challenges, Mitchell began white water rafting, he fell in love and married, earned a master's degree in public administration and continued flying, environmental activism and public speaking.
Mitchell's unshakable Positive Mental Attitude has earned him appearances on the "Today Show" and "Good Morning America" as well as feature articles in Parade, Time, The New York Times and other pubications.
"Before I was paralyzed, there were 10,000 things I could do," Mitchell says. "Now there are 9,000. I can either dwell on the 1,000 I lost or focus on the 9,000 I have left. I tell people that I have had two big bumps in my life. If I have chosen not to use them as an excuse to quit, then maybe some of the experiences you are having which are pulling you back can be put into a new perspective. You can step back, take a wider view and have a chance to say, "Maybe that isn't such a big deal after all."
"Remember: "It's not what happens to you, it's what you do about it."
~~~~
Experience is not what happens to a man. It is what a man does with what happens to him.....
FAITH
~~~
We're a rugged breed, us quads. If we weren't, we wouldn't be around today. Yes, we're a rugged breed. In many ways, we've been blessed with a savvy and spirit that isn't given to everybody.
And let me say that this refusal of total or full acceptance of one's disability all hooks up with one thing -- faith, an almost divine faith.
Down in the reception room of the Institute of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, over on the East River at 400 East 34th Street in New York City, there's a bronze plaque that's riveted to the wall. During the months of coming back to the Institute for treatment -- two or three times a week -- I rolled through that reception room many times, coming and going. But I never quite made the time to pull over to one side and read the words on that plaque that were written, it's said, by an unknown Confederate Soldier.
Then one afternoon, I did. I read it and then I read it again. When I finished it for the second time, I was near to bursting -- not in despair, but with an inner glow that had me straining to grip the arms of my wheelchair. I'd like to share it with you.....
A CREED FOR THOSE
WHO HAVE SUFFERED
~~~~
I asked God for strength, that I might achieve.
I was made weak, that I might learn humbly to obey...
I asked for health, that I might do great things.
I was given infirmity, that I might do better things...
I asked for riches, that I might be happy.
I was given poverty, that I might be wise...
I asked for power, that I might have the priase of men.
I was given weakness, that I might feel the need of God...
I asked for all things, that I might enjoy life.
I was given life, that I might enjoy all things...
I got nothing I asked for -- but everything I had hoped for.
Almost despite myself, my unspoken prayers were answered.
I am. among men, most richly blessed!
~~~~
"I Pray that out of God's
glorious riches he may
strengthen you with power
through his "Spirit" in your
inner being, so that Christ
may dwell in your hearts
through faith. And I pray
that you, being rooted and
established in love, may have
power, together with all the
saints, to grasp how wide and
long and high and deep is the
love of Christ, and to know
this love that surpasses
knowledge--that you may be
filled to the measure of all
the fullness of God."
....Ephesians 3:16-19
~~~
May God Richly Bless and Keep You.
Have a Blessed Day....
~~~~
God allows us to experience
the low points of life
in order to teach
us lessons we could
not learn in any
other way...
~~~~~
Good night!
Love
Geraldine Johnston
