Life is Good

Last night I went to an enrichment meeting. There was a speaker there who was the neatest lady. She told of how she had flown to Australia years ago to see her daughter perform with the BYU dance team. While she was there, she started feeling sick. She eventually went to a doctor and was diagnosed with strep throat, then eventually pnuemonia and finally with septic shock. I'm not sure what exactly that is, but it resulted in her body starting to shut down. She was given a 2% chance of living. Some how she made it. However when she awoke from a medically induced coma, her fingers and and legs had been deprived of oxygen and she had gangrene. They had to amputate some of her fingers and both of her legs. She talked about the struggle it was to come back from this experience and shared several things she had learned.

She talked about how she would often look at her life and wish that things could go back to the way they were before. But then she realized that although her body was stronger before, her spirit was stronger now.

Another important thing she learned was that we have to have a sense of humor about our struggles-- like when she crossed her legs in church and accidentally bumped the button that released her prothetic leg. It went flying off down the row and about scared a 10 year old boy to death. She leaned over and said, "Don't you hate it when that happens."

The next point she made was that we need to have gratitude. She said that after this happened there were hundreds of things that she couldn't do that she had never even thought to be grateful for before. Even with all her struggles, she is accutely grateful for all that she does have. It was a good eye-opener to help me remember to be grateful for everything I have. Sometimes we can wallow in our own insignificant struggles and not see how blessed we really are.

Then she told a story about the guy who played the violin at the inaugeration. I can't remember his name, but he had polio when he was young and has to get around on crutches. One day he was performing at a large concert hall and just as he started, one of his strings broke. I guess that throws all the other strings out of tune. The audience all assumed they would be waiting while something was done to remedy the situation. To their surprise, he paused for just a moment and then started playing the remaining strings one by one and as they watched, he composed a new masterpiece. At the end of the performance he received a standing ovation. He responded by saying something like this, "Sometimes a musician has to make music with whatever he has left." The point: Be flexible.

Her final point was that with out our trials, we could never have an appreciation or understanding of even the smallest portion of the Atonement. The Savior knows our pain because He suffered it too, and so much more. He knows us and loves us more than we can ever comprehend and those around us love us more than we often give them credit for. She was in a ward that she didn't feel a real part of when this happened. She had always thought that they didn't accept her into their circle. Afterwards she came to realize that the "circle" was created by herself and that her sisters were there waiting and ready to love and accept her. She is such a neat lady. I am so glad I was able to benefit from her experiences and remember that Life is Good!!!