I heard something so profound on the radio today.
A little back-story first. I have a sister. She is 6 years older than me. When she was 14 or so she was assaulted and suffered severe brain trauma. This disabled her for the rest of her life. She now suffers from schizo-affective disorder along with a variety of other mental and emotional challenges.
With this said, my entire life is for my sister. She is my motivation, my humility, my strength. When you see a loved one suffer, and see how limited they are, it affects you. I will not, can not, take this life for granted. There are a lot of things my sister can't, or will never experience. So I do. I work hard because she can't. I accomplish because she can't. I soak in all of life that I can possibly get because she can't.
But - there is one thing that my sister can do that I can't. (Well, I'm working on how I can...)
She helps and connects with people. She very instinctively and naturally is drawn to helping the physically disabled and elderly. She connects with them on this level that, honestly, I don't even know how to get to. I'm socially awkward at times and my connections to people are difficult endeavors for me. Her gift in this area has always astounded me and continues to teach me everyday.
So today I hear a woman named Gloria Lowe of Detroit, say this:
"I think it's probably the transformation that anyone who has a brain injury goes through — is that you lose contact with the things that you've been taught and, in doing so, you become like the birds. You start to do things instinctively. So you know about the human spirit."
And that was that. So simple. Society says that my sister is unfit to work and yet - she has this key to humanity, this key for connection and love, right at her fingertips. They see her as limited, but as Gloria points out, she's actually free. Like the Birds.