In 2008 I had a life-altering injury. I fell, broke my neck and damaged my spine. The paralysis extended from my mid-rib area through all 4 limbs. Possibly the most devastating thing about the injury was that there was absolutely nothing that could tell me whether I would walk again, or how much I would recover. There is no way for medicine to look at soft-tissue damage in the spine; its too packed in bone. So, short of cutting it open, they can only interpret symptoms, not look at actual damage. I had to learn to hope without any expectation of success, and I had to learn how to empower myself and push myself without knowing if anything would pay off at all. There was chronic mind-numbing nerve pain, paralysis and a lot of physical challenge – you simply haven’t lived until you’ve self-catheterized.
The Power of the Moment Sermon
I got a lot of functionality back (over 80%), but have as of the writing of this post, not recovered completely…I may never recover completely. Its been a powerful, and challenging, life lesson that has had its ups and downs.
Just under a year after my injury, after much coaching on how my experience might help others, I gave a sermon about what I learned; how hope and dreams can feed us right here, right now, and how we can be inspired by the question “What can I do right now?”
If you want to read it, its up on my Google Docs as “The Power of the Moment Sermon.”
Wow – I'm speechless. Thank you for sharing this. Inspiring and just what I needed to hear. Judith