a ho-hum day?

There’s something in me that wants every day to be fun and exciting –not work and laundry and dishes and errands and lawn mowing, but I just read a story that is changing how I view my day. 

I read a short biography about a young woman named Hilary who was discovered to have the disease myasthenia at age 21.  Muscle weakness slowly overcame her entire body until she was on a respirator and feeding tube.  “She could not see, speak, breathe, swallow or move except for a sixteenth of an inch of mobility in one toe and a much lesser movement in another.”  A special machine called a POSM was rigged that allowed her to type with this one muscle.   

With this one means of communication she lived a vibrant, creative life for years.  She wrote a book, had an incredible sense of humor (Hilary means “hilarious”) and even received an award from the Queen of England for the difference she made in the world.

This is a poem she wrote called “My Answer”: 

“I’m often asked if I am bored,

Frustrated, lonely,

My life abhorred.

And so I answer,

‘I am not’-

That now I can accept my lot,

Remind the sadly shaking head,

‘It is my body, not my mind, in bed.’ 

“I’m rarely frightened or in pain,

For this I thank my God again.

I have many loyal friends,

My joy in them despair transcends.

There’s music, too,

Books to read.

Discontentment cannot breed. 

“Although I can no longer play

I can listen every day

To football, rugby, tennis, cricket,

Imagination has no limit.

Add to this

A sense of humour

Killing that ‘depression’ rumour. 

“Now I have my Possum, too,

A miracle in all men’s view.

No longer do I have to wait,

My poems and letters to dictate.

Just flick my toe

And type myself.

I have no time to brood on health.”

Sometimes I hope a full life is something that will just happen to me when I wake up every day, but after reading Hilary’s story I wonder if a full life is something I work with Jesus every day to create –through thankfulness, a sense of humor, a choice to live for him as much as I can with what I’ve got. 

Jesus said, “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” (John 10:10 NIV)

Are you “brooding” on something today instead of choosing to live a creative, full life?

(Excerpts taken from Twelve Who Cared by Dorothy Clarke Wilson)