The Next Cup Of Coffee

by | Oct 15, 2014 | Love

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I want to share with you a special event that will be taking place in my life this week; my 20th wedding anniversary. Norah and I have decided to celebrate the achievement by renewing our vows.

Where has the time gone? It’s amazing when I look back at the past 20 years that I have shared with my wife, my best friend, my companion, and my rock. I close my eyes and pray to the Lord, thanking him for delivering my angel. God knew that the only thing that could break down my walls was the love Norah had for me. You could say that I lived the old cliche “looking for love in all the wrong places.” She was the main reason I found strength in myself, the main reason I could see hope for my life.

I wish I could say that I swooped down and swept her off her feet, or that I was her prince charming who rescued her from the tower, but that’s not how it happened. Instead people wondered what she saw in me, knowing I had nothing to offer Norah. The person I was 20 years ago was not a person you would invite to dinner or introduce to your parents. But my angel had a way of making me see the good in myself and the good in the world. She opened my mind to the possibility of a future. I was given the tenderness of her heart and the passion of her affection. I now have a inner drive to become a better man, a better husband, a better father and that drive is fueled by pure love.

Norah must have saw something in me 20 years ago because when I asked her to marry me, she said yes!

Every morning when I wake up and I see Norah, I get a warm sensation that comes over me. I grin because I think what a lucky man I am. So I close my eyes and pray to the Lord.

“Thank you for blessing me with my wife and my children, thank you for blessing me with the ability to be a father, thank you for showing me that I‘m a whole man, not half of one because I’m in a wheelchair, and thank you for the ability to show the world that not all is ever lost. Amen.”

While drinking my coffee in the morning I raise my head as I look around and see what Norah and I have achieved together. A feeling of deep pleasure and satisfaction overwhelms me. I have a beautiful house, a career, a family, and I am part of the community that I can call home. These are things that I wished for when I was younger, things that I believed only happened in the movies.

I can say that it wasn’t easy, every time we felt we were getting ahead something bad would happen, testing our faith in each other and in the Lord. While drinking, my now cold coffee, I am still smiling because the hard times made us stronger in each other and stronger in the Lord. If there was one word I could use to describe where we were 20 years ago as a couple it would have to be

fragile

We were easily broken, we were easily shattered, we were damaged, we were delicate, brittle, and frail.

But now we have

strength

There is power in our love, we are a force together like Batman and Robin. I know I am in the right relationship when when my wife considers herself Batman in the relationship. Our love is full of energy. It is what lights the path of what is to come, so we are never in the dark again. This is what I hope my kids see when they think of their parents and I hope they know it doesn’t only happen in the movies. I want people to see how in love Norah and I are and know that the hard times were a part of our journey.

My second cup of coffee is followed by the footsteps of Norah walking toward me and placing her hands on my shoulders while she says “Good morning my love.” It sends a warm chill up my back and instantly a smile forms from ear to ear. What a great way to start the day!

This is when she drinks her first cup of coffee and we spend the next hour talking about what we need to do for the day and catching up on our family. I have to admit this is one of my favorite times of the day. It gives me the jump start that I need to tackle the day.

I‘m excited to renew my vows with Norah. I can’t wait to share the moment of us standing alone in front of God proclaiming our love to one another. I enjoy watching the planning and activities surrounding this special celebration. I love seeing how my wife lights up when her invitations arrive. Watching all of the women in our family make decorations for our special day gets me excited to know how much this means to them. I can’t wait to hold Norah’s hand as we walk and roll down the church aisle and read our vows to each other. I want her to sit on my lap and dance the night away, as we smile and whisper to each other. I now have to give thanks to the Lord because she said Yes again! I wonder how I will feel the next morning when I have my first cup of coffee, as I wait for the sound of her steps walking toward me to rub my shoulders. Mmm Bless!!

Keep Rolling On

Share with me what you do to keep your day rolling on.

The Chair

by | Sep 24, 2014 | Wheelchair

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When you’re walking, you don’t go through the day thinking of a chair as a necessity, you think of it as a place to rest or a seat to work from. You wouldn’t think of it as a piece of equipment to get to the restroom, or to go to the store, or to work. A chair, is just a chair.

For most people this would be correct, but for me it is my freedom. It has made me look within myself to find the spark to Keep Rolling On.

“What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.”- Ralph Waldo Emerson.

I went through life always believing that I needed to be physically strong to get through, but I was wrong.
I have come to respect my chair, like a samurai would his sword, without it I would be lost. My chair is more than a piece of equipment that gets me from point A to B. It has been a key that has opened a door to a new me. Sounds crazy right? Most people see my chair and think “Oh look at the poor guy” and then they get an overwhelming feeling of wanting to help me. Not sure why this happens, you don’t see people going up to a homeless person in the streets and saying “How can I help?” Instead most people avoid the homeless. The most interaction is giving the homeless change, but hoping they don’t make physical contact.

Do people give in to these instances as pity or because they care? The pre-wheelchair Sergio would think I don’t need your pity! But the chair has changed this emotion in my heart. I now see that my chair gives me the ability to say hello to someone whom I have never met and to say thank you for your help. My chair allows me to start a conversation that would take us from stranger to friend. I now live my life with a drive to make me want to reach out and help others and my chair is the vehicle that makes it all happen. Funny how things turn out. At the beginning of my journey I felt that I couldn’t be around people because all they wanted to do was stare at me because of my wheelchair, but now I use it to get to know the world.

I think this was always the plan the Lord had for me. It was the only way he could get my attention, by thunking me in the back of the head to say, “That’s enough, I have plans for you. These plans will involve you being able to communicate with the world and I’m giving you a chair to help you achieve this.”

My first step was to come to terms with the fact that I had to start asking for help. You see my life before the chair was of a man that could handle anything and would never ask for help. Saying thank you was not part of my vocabulary. Now the chair has a way of opening my eyes and making me see the world, a world that has no limits. Remember that the only disability in life is a bad attitude!

So today I encourage you to Keep Rolling On!

attitude

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