It’s hard to spend much time out in public without seeing
someone struggling with a disability. Whether it’s a physical handicap like
paralysis in an appendage or a mental limitation such as a chromosomal
disorder, when I experience someone struggling with a disability, there is a
significant emotional response and I can feel an immediate tug at my heart. I
also tend to feel helplessness in not being able to relieve that person of their
struggle. I wish I had a cure.
I remember a very specific time when I was about three or
four years old at a basketball game. The game had ended and there was a boy
just a few years older than me coming down the steps from above me using a
cane. But instead of using the cane to brace his weight, he was moving it back
and forth, gently tapping the steps as he came down. “What is he doing with
that stick?” I asked my mom. “He is using that cane to feel his way down the
steps,” She answered. “That boy is blind, Chad.”
That last phrase cut me to my soul. Even as I write this, three
and a half decades later, I still vividly remember that moment and the flood of
emotions that overcame me. I was devastated for that boy. My heart was crushed
to think of him going through life without sight, vulnerable and not being able
to experience life the way I could. I realized he had been sitting behind me
for the last couple hours and hadn’t been able to see a second of the game.
Tragically, there’s a disability that I believe is more
debilitating than any of these. Pessimism and negativity cause a blindness far
more devastating than losing sight. The “doom and gloom” perspective afflicting
so many people cause them to be blinded to all the good around them and they
miss the beauty in their lives because ugliness has taken over their vision.
They are crippled by focusing on only what is going poorly, and the blessings
slip by unnoticed. They miss the game being played out before them, never fully
experiencing the wonderful performances displayed in front of their veiled
minds.
However, there is a bright spot here. While there may not be
a cure for many physical and mental disabilities, pessimism and negativity are
completely treatable. With regular doses of gratitude – being
intentionally thankful for all the good in your life – the doom and gloom will
start to melt away. Start each day with gratitude and keep it up throughout the
day. Unlike other medications, this one is impossible to overdose, but I dare
you to try.
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