My Life's Message

I feel like I am one of the luckiest people alive. I have been blessed with some of the most beautiful people to share life with.

These people are kind. Real. Vulnerable. Funny. Patient. Accepting. Each one brings me closer to the Divine and each teaches me a little more about my own soul that I didn't know before.

Don't get me wrong these people are not perfect, in fact, according to much of societies standards they are far from perfect. They are "broken." They are "disabled."

Someone recently asked me why I decided to become a Developmental Service Worker, a question I have been asked a million times, but all of a sudden the real reason hit me in the face.

I had just before that moment noticed that not everyone is comfortable around people with developmental disabilities, a phenomenon to me. Of course I knew those people out there, the ones that gave me looks everytime I went to the mall or park with someone I support, but in my mind those were uneducated or just plain terrible people, but it had never occurred to me that well intentioned, well educated people could feel the same way.
The reason this was such a phenomenon to me was because if I walked into a party of people I didn't know, and was uncomfortably eating appetizers and trying to pick someone to have a conversation with, if I saw someone with a disability I would naturally go to them.

Now, saying all this when this person asked me why I had become a Developmental Service Worker it finally made sense why I felt more comfortable around people with disabilities. Why I would approach that person at the party first.

It was in highschool, a place a lot of us felt broken, excluded, and in many instances worthless (which pretty much sums up my highschool experience), that I first started volunteering in the special needs room at my school. At the time it was mostly because I wanted something to do during my lunches, so I wouldn't be alone, but I found something a lot more beautiful than an escape.

I found a place of acceptance.

It became clear that in this place no matter what you've done, no matter what flaws you had, no matter what society said was wrong with you, no matter what disability you had (and don't fool yourself we ALL have disabilities), you were accepted here.

It reminded me of the kind of community that Jesus would have sought out. The kind that was a little broken, a little rough around the edges, but one that knew their humanity, knew their flaws and was open to others and to Him.

I have said many times that you don't know what a real church is supposed to be like until you go to a group home. And now "group home" is a taboo term, but I love it. It is a group of people trying to make a safe haven, a home. The strong helping the weak, the weak teaching the strong about their vulnerable humanity. A trust and love needed between all. Diversity among all, but still a connection as beings created by the same Love. When I walk into a church, I would love to see the same thing.

This year I made a list of things I wanted to accomplish. And one of them was Advocate in a Real Way for people with developmental disabilities. And the only way I could think of doing that was in this forum. I want others to understand what I have, so that the gap between able bodied and disabled would be closed, once everyone realized there is no such thing as able bodied, and there is so much to learn from those that we cast away and say are "too disabled." Maybe it's because we don't want to see ourselves in them, maybe it's because we don't want our own humanity laid in front of us, or because we don't want to see there isn't much difference between this person and us.

Maybe we are just scared.

I'll let you know right now, there isn't much difference between that person and you. Once you see yourself as a child of the Creator, even just as a being with a soul, you will see there isn't much separating you from everyone else, disabled or not.

I truly pray you will find this community. That you will go out of your way to seek out a friendship with people with disabilities, and not to help them or with the mindset you are going to bring something to them, but to actually learn from them and allow them to show you what friendship and acceptance is really like. Something really amazing happens when you become in touch with your Humanity, it is much easier to distinguish between you and God and you meet Him in a whole new way.

This is my life's message. If I only had one thing left to say to the world, I truly believe it would be this.   Next time you're at a party, looking for someone to talk to, go to the same person I would.
I promise you will find a friend.