There but for the grace of God...

I spent the day at a spinal trauma hospital meeting with employees who are soon to be clients of my business. As I sat there in the family waiting area for the meeting to begin I watched the activity around me. Patients and their families struggling with the trauma of crippling spinal injuries, often a result of violent accidents. People learning to use walkers, patients learning to control 150 lb motorized wheelchairs, famlies walking a few steps behind them their eyes filling with tears as they struggled to control the emotions that threatened to overwhelm them. Here it was the day before Thanksgiving and they were learning to lead a whole new life as or with a person with severe disabilities, that in most cases, would stay with them for the rest of their lives.

What karmic twist of fate had chosen these people to be destined to spend the rest of their lives in a wheelchair? What spared the rest of us ?

As I walked out into the brisk air of a cold winter morning I saw a little boy not much older than my own son fiddling with the controls of his father's wheelchair saying "let me show you how it's done."

I knew what I had to be thankful for the next day around the dinner table.