It's impossible to imagine what it would be like to have everything taken away from you - to one minute be in the prime of your life and the next minute have an unexpected fall leave you with a brain injury and paraplegic.
But well-known and respected musician Simon Paradis doesn't have a woe-is-me attitude; rather he has a positive outlook on life. His commitment to getting better, to resuming his life and his music, has earned him an award from the GF Strong Centre in Vancouver.
Paradis' outlook is inspiring, as are several other people in this community who we have profiled in recent weeks. Rose Schwarz is a young woman who faces a daily health challenge. She suffers from gastroparesis, a digestive condition, and has one of the most severe cases her doctors have seen. Her vagus nerve does not function and stimulate the stomach to contract. Therefore, she is unable to digest food. She has had several costly surgeries and is fighting to get better and to have a normal life. Do these challenges get her down? Sometimes, but her general attitude is a ray of sunshine and a source of hope.
Elias Minatsis was another one of our community heroes. After a brave battle with cancer, he died from a brain tumour on April 22. While he struggled with the disease, he too saw the positives in life. He didn't want people to feel sorry for him.
About a month ago, we received a phone call from a resident who was upset over traffic delays in Davis Bay due to the BC Hydro pole installation. She said she was stuck in traffic for 40 minutes, making her late for several appointments - and what were we going to do about it? After politely explaining to her that the work needed to be done and that she should adjust her schedule and be patient, she yelled some more and hung up the phone.
In her blog, Elias Minatsis' wife Chelsea expressed a thought that all of us should note. She wrote about traffic delays and about our attitude towards life.
Picture being stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic - would you rather sit and fume angrily about it, Chelsea asked, or throw on some great tunes and rock out in your car? Sing loud and proud and dance along, no matter what the people in the cars next to you think. How you react emotionally may not change how fast you get there, but it surely can affect the experience along the way.
