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  • Anonymous
    Participant
    Post count: 93172

    Christmas Eve 2006

    Afternoon Warriors.

    I just wanted to take a moment and wish you all well. This has been a hard year for many of us and for the newly diagnoses for sure. We wonder if we will ever feel like our old selves again. If we will have the energy to motivate and do things like we used to do.

    Well the short answer is yes. Sometimes it takes a change of mindset to look at ourselves differently. Other times we need to back off or our old hectic schedules and let things be. Hard to do for “type A” personalities but it can be done.

    This Christmas my gift to you is a poem I wrote a number of years ago and it is published in my book of Native American poetry and short stories “The Red Man In Me” It is called the gift. I have accepted my gift from the Creator.


    The Gift

    The Great Spirit said, “I am going to give you a tremendous gift.”
    “I hope I am worthy of this gift,” I replied
    The Great Spirit said he would inflict me with a disease

    “Disease as a gift?” I asked. I could not fathom illness as a gift
    “What you do with this gift depends on you,” he said
    “You can treat it as a curse or accept it for what it is
    You can lament or make the best of it. It is up to you
    What you do and how you act will prove if you are a Warrior”

    He struck me with Polio and paralyzed my legs
    Doctors said I would never walk again
    But I did. I learned to walk and run
    I thank the Great Spirit every day

    He taught me that those without legs are worthy
    He struck me with Graves’ disease
    Life was pure hell for a few years
    Loss of memory, pain, and tremors
    But I got better

    I learned that by helping others with Graves’
    I could help to heal myself
    I learned that helping others is a worthy cause
    I learned I had the strength to keep going

    Even when I had no strength left
    I learned that as bad off as I felt there was another
    Who was worse off than I who I could help?

    I learned that instead of reaching for a helping hand
    I had become the hand that was reached for
    Instead of being in the abyss I was on the edge
    Helping others out of the void

    The Great Spirit said, “I will take your vision”
    My eyes bulged and pained
    Vision started to dim and colors were lost
    My eyes went askew and looked in different directions
    But I got better

    Sixteen eye surgeries
    Much pain and discomfort
    Orbital Radiation on my eyes left me with cataracts
    But I got better.

    I learned that even with no sight I was worthy
    I saw with my mind what my eyes could no longer
    I learned that by helping others with eye problems
    I helped myself

    I am a Warrior. I no longer look at a person the same
    I see what is inside them not the shell of the body
    Instead of seeing a person in a wheelchair
    I see a person who was given a gift

    I see the Great Spirit gave them a gift too
    I admire their strength
    I admire their courage
    I admire their will

    I pay homage to a fellow Warrior as we pass by
    I thank the Great Spirit for these gifts
    For they made me the man I have become

    Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you all. You all are treasures I hold against my heart when I sit and count my blessings.

    Jake George
    NGDF Facilitator

    Anonymous
    Participant
    Post count: 93172

    Just wanted to start my day by wishing all of you a Merry Christmas. I consider you all “family” as you accept and understand how I’m feeling and encourage me when I need it. I am not doing Christmas at my house this year. I’m just not up to it. Sometimes I feel my children really don’t understand or accept what I’m going through, but I know I have to take care of me right now.

    Merry Christmas to all and thanks for the poem Jake.

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