To try to put into words what today’s post is about, I don’t know if I could give it the justice it deserves. Here is what I read for today:
When he was fifty-one years old, Reynolds Price learned he had a ten-inch malignant tumor in his spine, and he believed that his happy life of writing and teaching was over. Surgery and radiation left him a paraplegic, in unspeakable pain, and not sure that he would survive. But he did survive and was able to manage his pain through hypnosis. He then finished a novel in progress (winning a National Book Award), continued to teach, and became even more prolific in the last twenty-five years of his life, writing poems, more fiction, and memoirs. We need hero stories in every profession. — Abercrombie, Barbara (2012-05-08). A Year of Writing Dangerously: 365 Days of Inspiration & Encouragement (Kindle Locations 2575-2584). New World Library. Kindle Edition.
Writing is a fearsome but grand vocation — potentially healing but otherwise deadly. I wouldn’t trade my life for the world. — REYNOLDS PRICE
Think about what both of those author said. Can you think of someone who has had things happen in their life but have persevered and overcome their circumstances. I can think of several but the first two that come to mind for me are Mary Beth Chapman, Steven Curtis Chapman‘s wife, and Angie Smith, the wife of someone in the band Selah. I’ve read both their stories. Mary Beth‘s is called Choosing to SEE and Angie Smith‘s is called I Will Carry You. Both made me cry and I related to both on a very personal level. Both of these women have lost a child. One due to a tragic accident because of their son didn’t see her running up to him in his car because she was so excited to see her big brother coming home and the other knew that the baby she was carrying once born wouldn’t be able to make for very long due to a condition the baby had.
Both of these women I look up to because they too understand the grief I go through over the loss of my daughter. How much I miss her. How we all look forward to the day when we get to heaven and will get to see our little ones again. While each one of our stories are very different in how we lost our little one, the pain is all the same as we grieve. I thank the Lord everyday that I’m a Believer as I couldn’t imagine having gone through the last 5+ years without Him in me and by my side.
Who do you know that you view as a hero (or heroine) who’s made it through hard times or tragedies? Please share as I hope we can lift these people up and show them how special they are.
