I used to hate the word "disability," but I've come to embrace the fact that I'm one of more than 58 million Americans with some kind of physical or learning disability.
via www.cnn.com
Wow - super cool article from the actor who plays the coroner on CSI. Seriously - click the CNN link above and read the article. It sums up really well how Robert David Hall defines himself a lot more as a Dad, Husband, and halfway decent guitar player as he does by the fact that he is disabled. But that's there too - all part of who he is.
I think that's a little bit how I feel about Crohn's disease. I am not afraid of being a person with a chronic illness. As someone with a pretty much invisible illness its hard to really let it define me though. But yeah - it is sure a great tool for learning to deal with life.
Appreciating the good things just goes hand in hand with having some challenges. And I think it gives you some much needed empathy for other people. When you have an "invisible" disability, maybe you start to wonder if other people you talk to and work with in your day to day life might have some kind of invisible disability too.
In fact, I am pretty sure that EVERY person on the face of the Earth has quite a few different types of challenges, limits of ability, life traumas, or other visible or invisible defining characteristics.
Only by talking to one another about our lives can we ever really know what other people are going through. You know what? That's why I write this blog.
