WHAT’S SO BACKWARDS ABOUT THE WORD “DISABILITY?”

THE BACKWARDS WORD – A disability is an incapacity of some sort. If you have a physical or mental (let’s say) weakness, you are actually in business to go further in life than someone who doesn’t have a similar weakness. So if someone calls you disabled and it rubs you the wrong way because you do not care to be labeled, make a note in your mind that the person who made an unkind comment about you must be pretty bad off.

What makes you luckier than most is that your life has presented you with the great opportunity of a challenge. If you go about it in the right way, it could actually open more doors for you than would typically have been open otherwise.

Hopefully, you are thinking, “this is fantastic news!” though, I know you most likely are thinking quite the opposite. But think about this – with weakness will naturally come strength. More often than not, strengths are revealed when we are at our weakest.

How does that  make sense?

Getting used to a different way of life during and after recovery can really be a downer sometimes. But think about this:

When you are caught in a new situation that requires you to act or express yourself in a different way, you are cultivating a new ability. So, someone who didn’t sustain a major injury or illness, and who isn’t being forced to develop new ways of functioning/interacting with others, is at a severe disadvantage compared to you. That person could easily lack the capacity to understand. What a shame… Now, who’s disabled? Ha!

I joke about this because I’ve lived it, I do every day. I see how the challenges that present themselves in my life make me a better person. I have developed a forgiving understanding for others and a passion for life that I would have never had if my circumstances were easier. When I hear an -unknowing and sometimes unfeeling- stranger look at me strangely or make a hurtful remark, I know it’s because they aren’t as lucky as I am to have been forced to see life in a different way. I have learned to see their inability to cope and understand as the true disability.