From Coma to Podium

January 30, 2019 was the annual #BellLetsTalk day in Canada, raising over $7.2 million this year alone for mental health initiatives, as social media users worked toward ending the stigma surrounding mental health. The initiative encourages us to share our stories for the sake of understanding one another, getting the help we need, giving the help someone else needs, and removing the stigma attached to those suffering.

My own story includes the loss of my first husband to suicide, so this is personal. My friend, motivational speaker, radio personality, and Olympic Skier, “Jungle Jim" Hunter, shared part of his personal story and I thought it worthy to post here, to expand the conversation across North America.

Jim writes, “I often think how different my life could have been if I had not healed from the severe concussion that changed the direction of my life on June 21, 1963. I was ten years of age and smashed my head accidentally on two steel bars and a cement floor. I lay in a coma for almost three months. Dr. Greene found a solution and after following the protocol, I woke up. I didn't know anyone. I didn't know my name. I could no longer write with my right hand because it would shake. For 15 months I stayed in a dark, silent, room, and gradually learned to walk, talk, read, and write with my left hand, and read a book by Dorothea Brande called, Wake Up and Live.

“I would still get dizzy and fall over, but when I was finally ready to go back to school, they thought I could. I lasted one week when the school authorities said I could no longer go because I was 'mentally retarded'.

So, even though Jim's situation was caused by a physical injury, there was still stigma, and those who were quick to judge, unwilling to take the time to understand or investing in the resources to help.

“I was different. I was slow of speech, but one day my mother found me reading the books I loved the most, my Bible and Encyclopedias. She asked if I understood what I was reading. I nodded yes.

“So you understand you just can't keep up. I had no memory so had to journal everything, which I do to this day. I was odd. A new start in Calgary in a new school board maybe would be different but alas I was told, 'We don't have room for your kind here in this school.'

“I chose ski racing because the time on the course spoke for me when I didn't need to speak. I decided in my first race I would enter twice. Once as Mark Hunter (my real name) and the second time as Jim Hunter."

"Mark" fell 4 gates from the finish, and "Jim" started dead last in position #169 and finished in the same position. He then tells what came next. "The Skimeisters chose ten girls and 11 boys to go on to the next camp. The other boys were the fastest ten. The coach chose me as the 11th, they said, because 'If a kid has the desire to enter twice, we have to give him a chance for his effort.' For me, it decided who would be a ski racer and who would be a hockey player."

Jim shared the above photo, where he is already celebrating at the final gate before the finish in the 1976 Dual Slalom finals. “I heard people saying at the start that a Downhill Racer (like me) would never be a great slalom skier.” Jim explains, “In the photo, I’m celebrating because I had just beat one of the best slalom skiers in the world, Piero Gros.”

Jim concludes, “Victory is only ours if we secure victory over mental health.”

I agree with Jim. Let’s use the support and momentum of #BellLetsTalk to secure this victory! Share  your story, ask for help instead of suffering in silence or trying to conquer it alone. We were made for community, and no one has to struggle alone. Ask for help, share your struggles and successes, what helps and what is unhelpful, donate to organizations working effectively toward effective supports for mental health.

Not only do we need to remove the stigma around mental health issues, we also need to move beyond partial recovery with temporary, drug-induced “management” and instead let's fund effective research, develop targeted pharmaceuticals, and organize a multi-disciplinary approach to treatment of the whole person, body, mind, emotions and spirit.

Healing is our goal! Join in!

All Saints Day: Where does that leave me?

Treasured times in life include those mornings where Henry and I chat over coffee. As the sun rises, the cloud and sky morph through an infinite spectrum of colour from darkness to light, and we discuss, debate, and dabble in a vast set of interlinked subjects and concepts from personal joy or frustration to theological concepts or hilarious comedy. These quiet moments hone my heart, sharpen my thinking, strengthen my marriage and grow my love for God, for truth, and for my husband.

Today on All Saints’ Day, the conversation morphed, not through the list of well-known miracle workers, but through the necessity of humble unrewarding tasks, the clarity of knowing where we are to serve, our attitudes, the importance of an ordered life, in productive functions and whether rest is productive or not. We listened to British poet Malcolm Guite and a watched a video interview on The Lost World of Genesis One by American theologian John Walton.

There was more discussed today, but the primary epiphany was this: how glibly we glide past those who humbly serve in silence, who deliver our coffee, who keep statistics, balance the books, care for little ones, clean the road signs or paint the street lines, clean the toilets…

Here is where true sainthood is born. The miracle of a life spent faithfully executing one’s assigned tasks, in the humblest setting, without recognition or thanks. The discipline of doing what is often taken for granted, rarely noticed, yet done with a willing, patient, uncomplaining spirit. Perhaps “anyone could do it,” but they don’t. So these quiet saints plod pleasantly along, making life more bearable for thousands who rarely if ever realize, acknowledge or express thanks.

St. Therese of Lisieux is one of the patron saints of missions, not because she ever went anywhere, but because of her special love of missions, and the prayers and letters she gave in support of missionaries. She lived only 24 years and was an obscure nun for nine of those. She loved flowers and gave glory to God by just being her beautiful little self among all the other flowers in God's garden.

The world came to know Therese through her autobiography, Story of a Soul. She lived each day with an unshakable confidence in God's love. "What matters in life," she wrote, "is not great deeds, but great love." This is reminder to all of us who feel we can do nothing, that it is the little things that keep God's kingdom growing.

So persevere, my friend. Look alone to your own personal task. Remember the Saviour who did not come to be served, but to serve and give his life. (Matthew 20:28). Forget what is behind, disregard what others are doing or telling you to do or not do, eliminate comparisons from your mind (we always are on the losing end, our private life and personal stumbles held alongside others’ highlight reels).

Press on.  Do the next thing.

Cover Photo by Christian Battaglia on Unsplash

Potpourri

I don't watch much television, but when I do, I watch renovation shows on HGTV. I hate living through renos, but I adore watching mess to magnificent in less than thirty minutes (15 if I pvr the show and skip through the ads!). This morning I woke up to a wonderful video by Glennon Doyle Melton that uses some renovation terms like "sistering the joist". See if you don't appreciate this as much as I did - how important our sisters are in giving us strength:


The Best Part of Life by Glennon Doyle Melton from SALT Project on Vimeo.


Now, I also read an amazing post by John Lynch about depression and perseverance. If you struggled today to just get up and get going and need some strengthening in that area, take a read of this post right here.

Then I was off to Women2Women at my church where we're studying 40 Days in the Word. There's an app you can download if you just look on your app store for "FAC Experience". We're doing six different methods of bible study (one for each week of the 40 Day series), memorizing one scripture verse per week, engaging in daily readings and personal devotional time (you can download the workbook and join us), and discussing the study methods in weekly small groups. You can watch the weekend message on the app and view the teaching video for each weekly group study on the app as well. I get to double dip because we're doing it both in our women's group and in my evening mixed life group. Fascinating to see the different perspectives each person brings in helping one another see and understand fresh perspectives and deeper understanding of the scripture and of our precious Lord Jesus from what each one shares.

Finally, let's play for a moment.

Today as our group session finished, I was visiting with a friend when a couple other ladies walked past. A flutter caught the edge of my vision and I noticed something paper-ish floating down to the ground. It was cut out of card stock and it was the letter "O" (as in Oprah or orphanage or orange). I picked it up and chased the ladies who had walked by, thinking one of them dropped it from a craft they were doing or perhaps a bulletin board they were prepping. No one claimed it but we thought it could be a round halo slipped off someone's head or a missing letter from a children's classroom. How it got onto the floor in the lobby is a mystery.

So here's the game:

If you were given the letter "O", what would the letter "O" represent in your life today? Opportunity? Optimism? Organization? Offense? Occupation? Or is it "Ohhhhh!" as in a sense of wonder, surprise, expectancy? Something else entirely? A friend in college had "Oom" day, where their mother gave them presents for no reason at all.

Think about it. Comment if you like. Whatever you decide, have a happy "O" day.