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About Me...I never liked to stand still when I was a kid. Active was where my heart always belonged. I just wanted to be outside and have fun. Sport has always simply been playing to me, but I dig in and go at it hard. In September 1993, when I was 19 years old I got a cold that turned into the flu. By Christmas I could barely walk or move. The short version is that I have 3 different kinds of arthritis throughout my entire body – every joint as well as all my tendons and ligaments. It also affects my muscles, skin, bones, and even some of my organs. There is not one place on my body that isn't in terrible pain all day every day. One of my healers once jokingly told me I deserve an award for how messed up I am. Despite all the years of pain I refuse to give up who I am. I am an athlete by heart. Pain doesn't stop me, it only slows me down, but hurrying has never been my thing... On top of athletic-y kinda stuff, I have a pretty deep artistic side to me as well. I like to get my hands into some driftwood to do wild crafting and carving, or simply writing and drawing. I think it's important to nourish the balance of both the physical and creative/artistic sides of life. It makes life so flavourful.
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A Pivotal Change...
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In the fall of 2002 I met someone who changed everything for me. Her name was Lorraine. We met at a hospital in Mexico in November 2002. She had breast, brain and liver cancer. She died a couple months later. At Christmas time Lorraine told me to bring what I had to the world. It was the last thing I heard from her before she passed on. I don't know how to articulate how overwhelming that was for me, but I was very honoured to hear it. The weight it has put on me was something I didn't know how to handle then, nor do now. I never will! This amazing woman has enabled me to dream of impossible things and power massive adversity to pull off some extraordinary stuff. I don't stop dreaming of, and looking past impossible because of her.
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