The Gift That Keeps on Taking

     Throughout my life, I have known that my life experiences were gifts, which I must accept, and from which I must learn.  I am called to learn.  I must answer that call.  Each of us must answer our call. 

     I do not believe in mistakes.  Yes, I make mistakes.  But, I do not believe in mistakes.

     My birth was planned.  I was wanted.  I am wanted.  I was loved.  I am loved.

     I do not believe in doom--in being doomed to a negative existence.  I have doubts.  I will have doubts.  I am tested.  I will be tested.  But, I am not doomed.  I cannot be.  None of us is.  None of us can be so doomed.

     I do not believe in evil.  Nothing in the air I breathe is evil.

     All of the air that I breathe is filled with lessons.  I must be a student of those lessons.

     I am driven.  I am driven to appreciate, as Michael J. Fox says of his Parkinson's Disease, "the gift that keeps on taking."  I am called to appreciate my gifts.  Each of us is.  All of us are so called.

     My gifts?  Cerebral palsy and epilepsy.  The insights that flow from them.

     In "A Conversation with Michael J. Fox," CNN's Sanjay Gupta asked, "Do you ever ask yourself, 'Why me?"  

     Michael J. Fox responded, "Why not me?" ... "It is what it is."

     Fox voices the movement we must make from self-pity to determination.  He speaks with or of no arrogance.  If we are to receive the gifts we are given--our life experiences--then, we may not truncate them.  Painful though the process may be, to truncate our life experiences is to trip, and to fall flat on our faces.

    My life experiences are gifts.  I will my acceptance.  I will learn.  I will accept my call.  I am willing.  I call you.  Join me.