Teachers Everywhere

    "Circumstances do not rise to meet our expectations.  Events happen as they do.  People behave as they are.  Embrace what you actually get."

-Epictetus

     I know a guy who recently became paralyzed from the waist down.  When I saw him in a wheelchair, my eyes bulged and I said, "What happened?!  Did you break your leg?"  He raced over to me like a pro and told me that right after I last saw him, he had gone into the hospital for emergency surgery, and ended up going numb from the hips down.  He bruised his leg when he punched it, trying to feel something, but he can't, and nobody knows why.  All they can tell him is that he might walk again soon, but he continues to wait.  

     Here's the thing.  This guy isn't whining and moping and freaking out at all.  He's talking about how ripped his upper body is going to get, and poppin' wheelies all over the place.  He's excited about his new job, he's completely self sufficient, and he's usually smiling.  He talks openly about what's happening with him, but he doesn't dwell or dote on it.  I can tell he's impatient, I can tell he's uncomfortable, and I can tell he hates not feeling his legs, but he's living his life happily anyway. 

     This guy is someone I think a lot of people might be put off by.  He comes from poverty, he has a sordid past, and he smells like a lifetime of cigarettes.  He isn't well educated and he's kind of goofy, but he is the kind of guy who has been a caretaker for dying family members, and who is unfalteringly courteous.  He prides himself on his heart drawings, his stories, and knowledge of Motown.  He suffers the loss of his legs, and moves on with a smile.  And did I mention that he's fresh out of high school? 

     The more I get to know people, the more I realize that nobody deserves to be judged by what they seem to be.  Sometimes the dirtiest, most annoying kids have the biggest hearts.  Sometimes the beautiful, perfect people do too!  The outwardness of it all is so unimportant.  The status and clothing and stuff that we own means nothing.  Even the way we smell and the energy we put off, our deformities and disabilities, our ailments, our tans and the looks on our faces-those things are merely outward occurrences.  The stuff you never see until you sit down and talk to someone, until you sit down and listen to their story, is the stuff that actually matters.  Any person in this world can teach us a lesson if we listen.  And when you think about what each person you encounter throughout your day has been through in their lifetime (and maybe even in previous lifetimes), doesn't it make you just swell with compassion for the whole human race?  Sometimes we learn the biggest lessons in joy from the ones who have suffered the greatest losses.  Sometimes our greatest lessons in gratitude come from those who have never really had anything.  For what could we possibly need but our love, our integrity, and each other?  What more could we wish for than the intangible beauty of our dreams?

"The struggle ends when gratitude begins."

-Neil Donald Walsh

For this painting and more, please visit www.RNoelle.com