Having CP means a lot of different things to and for me. For this post it means having to do things differently than most people. I roll instead of walk a lot, and when I do walk, I need a walker or someone’s hands, so I do not fall. Technology makes my hand and half (how I refer to my right hand on a good day) not a big deal. I have written about the technology I favor in a previous blog post. A self-described techno geek: it is not a stretch to say that technology changed my life for the better and made it easier to thrive with my condition.
Still even with knowing I must do stuff differently does not mean it is always easy for me to admit. Those who have been in my chosen family since high school can tell you all how true my last sentence is. Every time I got worried as a teenager, and since, one of my chosen brothers will always say: “We’ll figure it out. Take a deep breath and we’ll figure it out…together.” In high school: this sentence was followed by a hug. Today, it is followed by a longer, more, calming, conversation before we figure it out together. Due to the fact we are not all in the same town or building every day anymore.
When I decided to build a life I love, that is completely mine and God’s, I needed a lot of encouragement and all of them showed up in spades every time I picked up my cell and reached out. They always have. They always will. I will and do for them as well. It is the privilege of my life. We are family in every way that matters. My brother/journey partner describes the last few months, in my life, both blog wise and away from blogging as a trajectory. That is such a fitting description.
I am understanding I can combine my political science training and blogging to create a truly fulfilling and financially stable life for myself. More on this in future blog posts. Now, I am still dreaming and creating the fusion. For the first time in a long time, I understand everything I did and went through has a purpose. Nothing is a waste. I am only going to get braver, and surer of myself.
This is your warning world: my blinders are off. The way things have always been done is not going to cut it for me or the world anymore going forward. Those of us left on this planet are trying to move forward in a world where the word pandemic is not something we read in a history book. It is something intimately understood having lived through and with its changes/ fallout in our new typical are not going to believe the status quo is acceptable.
I am going to spend my life working to make the world better for me, the people I love, and those that come behind me. I did not survive, when I was born, just so I could nod and smile politely. No, I lived so I could learn how to thrive. Thriving I am. I thrive because it is always a together endeavor and my chosen family and I can do anything if we do it…together.