We Can Overcome!

 Please remember that the goal here, is a life of joy!

                                             Dr. Perry Chin

Do we know who we are, really? We may think we do because surely no one knows our struggles, secrets, self-doubts and fantasies better. But what if that’s just the tip of the iceberg? What if we are much more than we know? When we were children, open and growing, we were excited about whom we could become, and so were constantly discovering new truths about ourselves. What if we were to follow that same process today and throughout life? Few of us do though, because we have become sure of our life-stations, and to reach beyond them feels scary; we might lose our well-established self-identity. Yet continual self discovery is a really good idea because like rivers, we are changing, flowing, always new and wonderfully different. 

Not one of us has ever seen our faces nor heard the timber of our voices except in a mirror or though video, audio or pictures, which may be very good, but they are not us. More importantly we've never felt our presence. If, for example, we watch our favorite actor in films and interviews, and then find an opportunity to meet, we find someone uniquely deeper and more expansive than we ever imagined; we find a real person. And that person, like you, has never seen him or herself except in pictures and films.

Therefore, a stranger meeting you for the first time may well see you more clearly than you see yourself. He’s not watching a video; he is seeing your face and body, hearing your voice, feeling your presence and being touched by your personality; none of which you can do yourself. If he is wise and paying attention this stranger will experience a person you will not know in a lifetime because his viewpoint is one to which you are simply not privileged. And therein lays one great value of honest relationships.

We are not statues in a park, not one thing, solid and unmoving; we are process—flowing, unfolding rivers of wisdom and grace—exploring vast regions of possibility. When we follow, with the enthusiasm of children, our passions in art, business, sports, relationships, healing, teaching or whatever, we are then on our paths and discovering life’s true purpose each day.

A Bit of Humor for You:
    “What on earth could be going faster than my Ferrari?” the doctor asks himself. He presses down the accelerator and is soon doing 250 mph.
   Then ahead of him he sees an old man tooling along on a Moped. He gives it more gas and passes the Moped at 275 mph. He's feeling pretty good until he looks in his mirror and sees the old man gaining on him. Astounded by the speed of the old guy, he floors the gas pedal and takes the Ferrari all the way to 320 mph.
   Not ten seconds later, he sees the Moped bearing down on him again. The Ferrari is flat out and there’s nothing more he can do.
  The Moped is coming on way too fast and crashes into the back of the Ferrari. 
  The doctor stops and runs back and, to his amazement, finds the old man still alive. He kneels down and says to him; “I'm a doctor. What can I do to help you?”
   “Oh please,” the old man mumbles, “Unhook my suspenders from your rear view mirror.”

Our Heroine:
There is a woman in Southern Japan whose real name I may not reveal because it would embarrass her. She will know of this salutation though and that will be enough. Let’s call our heroine Michiko, which means beautiful and wise. Michiko is often on my mind nowadays and I must tell you why. I have dealt with severe pain from crushed nerves in my cervical vertebrae for almost four years. If I begin feeling defeated by my pain, I need only remember the courage and joy of Michiko whose example reminds me that I am much more than my pain.

Now in her fifties, Michiko is stunningly beautiful and her presence warms you within. Everyone who meets her feels uplifted and enriched by her love and her joy. I had just completed a seminar on a southern island of Japan and was riding next to Michiko on the way to a volcano. As the car swerved, my hand bumped against her leg and to my surprise, I realized it was artificial.

She then told me her story: When she was a pretty and popular teenager, she one day fell from a train platform and a passing train severed both her legs at mid-thigh. How she survived such great loss of blood I can’t guess. She afterwards went through months of depression; not only had she lost the ability to walk and to dance, which she loved; Michiko was now a teenage girl without legs.

How did she find the ability to overcome her tragedy? How did she develop such sparkling joy and maturity? What saved her from being a self-described victim? How many months or years of painful work did her self-healing take? Every day Michiko was at choice of either immersing into self-pity or growing stronger. She chose, and eventually grew and adapted so completely that I, after having known and walked with her for months, never even suspected she had lost her legs. 

Not only did she survive, Michiko is one of the rare Japanese women to succeed as a business owner. Now she uses her influence and her success to generously create seminars, workshops and other opportunities for hundreds of people to uplift their lives.

Michiko is a constant inspiration and it is our honor to acknowledge her as our heroine.