Six years ago, this horrific accident almost took my life … and my leg.
May 20, 2004 near Valencia California
Somehow I defied the odds and recovered better than expected, surprising doctors who said that I might never walk again. Four months post-accident, I walked unassisted, and four years later I was able to return to running, which had been a vital part of my life for years.
Sounds like a courageous happily-ever-after story … but for a time, it was far from that. When I woke up twelve days post-accident, I realized I’d have a tough physical recovery, but the emotional and spiritual trauma that followed shocked and almost killed me. Learning to live with pain, limitations and a leg with a stark deformity threw everything I thought I knew about God, myself and love into a whirlwind I dubbed Hurricane Reality.
I’ve written a memoir titled Because I Can. It’s a story of physical, mental and spiritual hope found through perseverance, asking questions and living in the present. It’s not a Pollyanna story — I still have disappointments and still ask questions. In spite of that, I’ve made a choice to live life to the fullest, “Doing what I can, with what I have, where I am.” (Teddy Roosevelt).
Running ... Because I Can! Ready to run a half-marathon on 6/13/10
Because I Can is in the rewriting/editing phase now, I look forward to the day when I can update this sentence with info about it being published.
