Meet Mac...my new hero!!! I pass him every time I hike the Y...well, he actually passes me....running and wearing a 50lb pack! Curiosity got the better of me today and I just had to stop him and learn his story, and boy did I get the grand tour! I dont usually go home with complete strangers.....ok, I have been known to wander off now and again...but today was worth the risk Twenty years ago he found himself legally blind in one eye from diabetes, suffering arthritis from bulging discs in his back, recovering from a heart attack and triple bypass surgery, divorced, depressed, 145lbs overweight, and told hed be lucky to last 5yrs if things didnt change. He bought it! The option to change was too difficult, impossible, too late. So he began the preparations of wrapping up his affairs and was determined to enjoy the time he had left...Selavi! But one by one opportunities to live passed him by and he sat in a fishbowl of solitude watching, the time ticking ever louder as his years counted down. Then the unthinkable happened....he woke up on his 5yr anniversary and realized he was still here! Bewildered and perplexed he began to wonder how long he would stick it out, how many more years of waiting would he endure and the uncertainty was frightening. He looked out his window at the mountain and the whitewashed Y and decided in that moment to make that his new goal...if it killed him, so be it, that was better than waiting to die. It took him 2 months to make it to the first park bench on the switch back, 6 mo to make it to the half way point, and 13 mo to make it to the top! With every laboring breath his steps became more sure, his purpose more determined. Today, at 78, his daily journey up the Y celebrates his spirits unwavering desire to live, to fight his efforts to snuff it out, to squeeze from him the power he possesses. This man is positive proof that the capacity to change, to become who we are meant to be, to change our story, to live the life we crave, lies within each of us and is yearning for the opportunity to be set free. That while we may sometimes silence that voice or ignore it out of fear it is always searching for a way to be heard, to be embraced, to be honored.
Posted on: Fri, 02 May 2014 04:31:07 +0000
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