So my power chair has an odometer on it and it showed me that I crossed the 1000 km mark this week. For whatever reason I love that it keeps track of how far I’ve gone. I’ve gone pretty far. It’s a constant reminder that this bloody illness is not keeping me down as of yet…
I’ve also discovered that the subways here are fairly accessible. There is an elevator at the subway stop closest to me and there are elevators close to where my home is in my church. So now at least I don’t feel like I’m on the other side of the world from the places that mean, well, the world to me.
But sometimes there are still obstacles. Twice now on Sunday mornings I have gone to the subway only to discover that it’s not working properly. One morning I got there and 45 minutes later it finally started to leave for my destination. By then I got totally fed up and didn’t bother going to church.
Then this past Sunday I learned that the subway would stop long before my destination and that I would need to get off and get on a bus that would take me six or seven more stops to another station where I would have to get off the bus and get back on the subway to my final stop. I’d be lying to say I wasn’t pissed. It’s even more of a pain in the ass for me because I need to take the elevator up and down the stairs and the bus has to open up its lift in order to let me in. However, I felt very stubborn and decided to keep on going no matter what. I finally did arrive at my church, 20 minutes late which I hate, but was thankful to be there.
Why?
Because besides the scripture passage being 1 Corinthian‘s 13 which I absolutely love and is about love, we heard from a couple who have been married for 50 years. They are beautiful people and I look up to them.
Now I know that not every minute of their 50 years was easy. There had to be times along the way that I’m sure they decided to make the best of it, despite the hardship of whatever was up.
So this past Sunday, despite being stuck in a chair, despite sometimes crappy subway service, despite being away from home for so long, despite having a shitty disease, I decided to make the best of it and was reminded, oh so beautifully by that couple, that I am not alone.
For that I am grateful.
