For the last 6 months working on the journey for our Annual Fitness Challenge that was a complete success I have noticed something remarkable.
How do we as a community see a person in a wheelchair and how do we as people in wheelchair believe a person in a wheelchair should be?
The Image
Everyone that has a spinal cord injury before their accident had an image of what a person in a wheelchair is. Because of that
image some of them after having their injury started to believe that there is indeed no possibilities or that they have fallen into the special needs division and that they need to be excluded in some way.
I think that it is remarkable because as we are working on possibilities we are recognizing that there are people consistently talking about obstacles and excuses.
Some of them can do allot more then what they are doing. Living independently, working, walking, having relationships, developing their talents but our image of ourselves, our belief of how we should be was for a long time: well….this happened to me and know I’m like this so that’s it.
As the saying goes, you don’t have to fish for the person but teach the person how to fish and I started to think we should inspire the person to fish regardless that he can or cannot. Otherwise they could start saying line is too thin, the wind is too strong, the sun is too high and create so many excuses that can be valid but therefore stayed stuck at the same place.
Inspire and Transorm
I believe we should inspire and transform the image that all of us have of a person in a wheelchair. When we see someone in a wheelchair we should see someone smiling.
Someone strong and independent. Someone with a family beside him.
Having that image and that belief can help shape a person to work towards that quality of life that he or she should be living!