In order to experience peace of mind and joy in the present moment, trust and have faith that you are always in the right place at the right time. The following short story highlights this point and is taken from Lilly Walter’s book, “One Hand Typing and Keyboarding Manual: With Personal Motivational Messages from Others Who Have Overcome.”
One of my joys and passions is my voice. I love to perform in our local community theaters. My throat became very sore during a particularly grueling show run. It was my first time performing an operatic piece, and I was terrified that I had actually done some damage to my vocal cords. I was a lead and we were about to open. So I made an appointment with my family doctor, where I waited for an hour. I finally left in a huff, went back to work, grabbed a phone book and found a throat specialist close by. Once more, I made an appointment, and off I went.
The nurse showed me in and I sat down to wait for the doctor. I was feeling very disgruntled. I rarely get sick, and here I was, sick when I needed to be healthy. Besides, I had to take time out of my workday to go to two different doctors, both of whom kept me waiting. It was very frustrating. Why do these things have to happen? A moment later the nurse came back in, and said, “May I ask you something personal?”
This seemed odd; what else do they ask you but personal questions in a doctor’s office? But I looked at the nurse and replied, “Yes, of course.”
“I noticed your hand,” she said hesitantly.
I lost half of my left hand in a forklift accident when I was 11. I think it is one of the reasons I didn’t follow my dream of performing in theater, although everyone says, “Gee, I never noticed! You are so natural.” In the back of my mind I thought that they only wanted to see perfect people on stage. No one would want to see me. But I love musical comedies, and I do have a good voice. So one day, I tried out at our local community theater. I was the first one they cast! That was three years ago. Since then, I have been cast in almost everything I tried out for.
The nurse continued, “What I need to know is how has this affected your life.” Never in the 25 years since it happened has someone asked me this. Maybe they’ll say, “Does it bother you?” but never anything as sweeping as, “How has it affected your life?”
After an awkward pause, she said, “You see, I just had a baby, and her hand is like yours. I, well, need to know how it has affected your life.”
“How has it affected my life?” I thought about it a bit, so I could think of the right words to say. Finally, I said, “It has affected my life, but not in a bad way – I do many things that people with two normal hands find difficult. I type about 75 words a minute, I play the guitar, I have ridden and shown horses for years, and I even have a Housemasters Degree. I’m involved in musical theater, and I am a professional speaker. I am constantly in front of a crowd. I do television shows four or five times a year. I think it was never “difficult” because of the love and encouragement of my family. They always talked about all the great notoriety I would get because I would learn how to do things with one hand that most people had trouble doing with two. We were all very excited about that. That was the main focus, not the handicap.
“Your daughter does not have a problem. She is normal. You are the one who will teach her to think of herself as anything else. She will come to know she is “different,” but you will teach her that different is wonderful. Normal means you are average. What’s fun about that?”
She was silent for a while. Then she simply said, “Thank you” and walked out.
I sat there thinking, “Why do these things have to happen?” Everything happens for a reason, even that forklift falling on my hand. All the circumstances leading up to being at this doctor’s office, and this moment in time happened for a reason.
The doctor came in, looked at my throat and said he wanted to anesthetize and put a probe down it to examine it. Well, singers are very paranoid about putting medical instruments down their throats, especially ones so rough they need to be anesthetized!
I said, “No thanks,” and walked out.
The next day, my throat was completely better. 27 
– Lilly Walters, One Hand Typing and Keyboarding Manual:
With Personal Motivational Messages from Others Who Have Overcome
Cited in You Have Chosen to Remember, p. 193-195
Read the section of the book that this inspirational quote comes from.
I feel your pain, yet all pain is self-inflicted. So if all pain is self-inflicted, how, you may ask, do I feel your pain? Ah, the answer is as simple as the question, for the answer came even before the question. There is nothing you can feel, nothing you can accomplish without Me, for there is nothing I can be, feel or accomplish without you. Herein lies the gift we hold for each other. At times, you might think this is not true, yet aren’t those the times when you are at your loneliest? Be lonely, my brother, for that is your choice, but understand that you have chosen it and understand that you feel lonely, not because you are alone, but because you think you are. There is one thing that I know, feel and live, from the grandest of ballrooms to the smallest crevices in my heart. You may feel lonely but you are never alone. Simply remember this: You are never alone for I Am always with you. Choose to feel Me in the silence and I Am there. Let Me cover you and no rain shall touch your head, not even in the grandest of storms, when you remember that I Am with you.
– James Blanchard Cisneros, Author of You Have Chosen to Remember: A
Journey from Perception to Knowledge, Peace of Mind and Joy, p. 218-219
Read the section of the book that this inspirational quote comes from.
Footnotes / Acknowledgments
Every effort has been made to provide accurate source attribution. Should any attribution be found to be incorrect, the author welcomes written documentation supporting correction for subsequent printings. For material not in the public domain, selection was made according to generally accepted fair-use standards and practices.
27. Lilly Walters, (www.motivational-keynote-speakers.com) One Hand Typing and Keyboarding Manual: With Personal Motivational Messages From Others Who Have Overcome, Copyright 2003 (ABC Schermerhorn Walters, Co.).
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