Today’s writing will wrap up my New York experience. If you remember a few days ago I covered part two of my families visit to see our friends P , H and family.

Let me state for the record that the absolute best part of the visit was just being with our friends and  seeing their eldest son E and his lovely fiance.

Our New York trip was years in the making. H and P have asked us to come for years to stay and visit and for one reason or another it never happened.

This time, I was determined to get there no matter what came up. As I got ready to go anxiety was building around my ability to get there and keep pace.

My wife said we need to take your transport chair and of  course I said no. I can do it! Well I spoke to P and told him that I did not need it . P  said you better bring it just in case. So, it came and went under the bus to NY. I had many different emotional thoughts while I was away. They ranged from blissful peace to feeling like a pain in the neck. Having me out of my element in NY made me needy. Not that  I would ever want to be that to anyone  but that is what I felt that I became. It took a lot of time, energy, and money on H and P’ s part to make out visit possible.

They refused our offer to pay repeatedly. WHY?

They were not grandstanding that’s for sure. They were being who they have always been Jesus to their friends. H. And P SAW a need and did what God wanted them to do. Having us visit and pushing me around for two days was an act of love. One that I /we will never forget.

We all shared some beautiful memories while we were visiting . I also had a few times where I felt deeply embarrassed by  the  confusion that I feel that I caused.

Some people don’t see a physically challenged or handicapped person  with a whole lot of compassion. We are frankly in their way. I saw it first hand many times over the last 3 years but NY, took the cake. Not everyone in NY was bad but because of the amount of people there it felt like it was rudeness on steroids.

I won’t get into it now but I felt terrible for what my friends wife and kids witnessed. It was upsetting to see them feeling bad for me. And I just felt like a killjoy because of how much attention I needed.

God is teaching me so much through this life experience . I don’t have to like it, and I don’t as a matter of fact, I hate it.

But God expects me to take this handicapped experience and make something positive out of it. Just as you are called to do the same in your own lives.

So in closing, I am very grateful for a beautiful visit with my friends, I felt the weight of my human frailty in this moment and what it has done after being at home and resting with this situation is that I had to be woken up to see where I was truely at physically .

With my eyes wide open on my situation I have two options available to me . The first thing is to as they say,  hate on myself. The poor Danny strategy. That’s not acceptable.

The other option is to look at this as a temporary problem. One that I need to accept for the moment. My friends P and H and family saw the treatment that a handicapped person faces on a daily basis.They stood up for me and took on the offenders.  I found myself apologizing to everyone  for being there.

H and P  are wonderful people and New York is very lucky to have them both. Amen.

People who need people. Barbara Streisand.

http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=fPlQ6EtArSc

GOD BLESS You,

Danny