There is rarely anything to cheer about when I zap on the
nightly news. More of our heroes killed
in Afghanistan, car crashes, floods, drought, but as a former journalist, I am
a bit of an addict. (I usually watch two networks.) Last night I only needed one network to make
me cry, cheer, and celebrate the extraordinary human spirit. The Paralympics now have taken London’s
center stage, and with the competition, hundreds of heart-breaking stories, and
magnificent come-backs.
In 2005 Martine Wiltshire, was so proud that her glorious city
would get the 2012 Olympic games, she celebrated, slept in, and took a different
route to work. One minute, the underground - the tube, was crowded with people smiling about
winning the Olympics, the next, Wiltshire’s world exploded. Suicide
bombers had boarded the tube, and loosed hell. The tube became a mass of twisted, broken, steel
that held bleeding, and dying people who were just trying to get to work.
The blast tore Martine's life to pieces. She barely lived losing both legs. That scarcely slowed her down. She told NBC that she
had two choices, to lie down and never walk again, or get up and go on with
life. And go on she did, with
an extraordinary tour de force for living. She got married, became a mom, and is now a star athlete at
the Paralympic Games. 
Martine plays sit down volleyball. And do not get in her way! She plays like a barracuda – tenacious, but with an extraordinary spirit, and gratefulness to be exactly who she is.
The news ended and I felt like I knew I had just witnessed something extraordinary. I had been introduced to a most extraordinary woman, a determined athlete. By Connie Timpson
Performance Coach and author of "You Are Extraordinary."
No comments:
Post a Comment