What I Can Do

When I was 7 or 8, my dad brought home a filmstrip (yes, a filmstrip!) about a woman who had no arms. I vividly remember two scenes from that movie, one where she was in a grocery store, repeatedly slipping her foot out of her flip-flop sandal to use it to examine produce and put it in her cart, and the other where she was sitting on a barstool in her kitchen, carefully slicing a tomato with her feet.

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I remember a few months ago, many of my facebook friends passing around a youtube video link of a young mother who also didn't have arms (or didn't have the use of her arms? I don't recall exactly). She picked up her infant, rocked him, and changed his diaper, all with her feet. Most of my friends made comments to the effect of "wow, I will never complain about the tasks of motherhood again, I have it so easy!"

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Once when I was talking about my miscarriage experiences, someone said "I don't know how you do it."
I will tell you how I did it--how I do it--how those other women did what they did. We simply did what we had to do. And when the situation was in our faces, we could do it because we had to do it.


We are capable of many things, some we know we can handle, some we don't know until we are in the situation. But I maintain that we are capable of much. You never know what you can do until you are tested, but don't discredit yourself by saying "I could never do that." Because, chances are, if you had to, you could.

And now, with the knowledge that you can...consider striking out and making the situation for yourself. Not all challenges are negative things. Sometimes we have to take the initiative to make things start to happen. Don't let fear hold you back. "A life lived in fear is a life half-lived."

Believe in Yourself