Your Best, By Kathryn Bagg

Last summer Peter and I were travelling along Deerfoot Trail in Calgary, probably over the 100 km speed limit. It was raining heavily, and suddenly a car in front of us spun out. Peter is one of those guys who loves to drive, and he's good at it. He managed to avert what could have been a very serious accident. While this was happening my life did not pass before me—oh no—rather my thought was, “I'm going to end up in a wheelchair, and I won't be any good at it.”

Yes, Christian would be a tough act to follow. I wonder how many of you who are recently injured look at this site and feel that way. Here's a guy who doesn't use stunt doubles for Tricks of the Trade; although, I do wish he had used a stunt double nine years ago!

I know that if I were to find myself in a chair, I would have difficulty doing a lot of those tricks. I'm a woman, of a certain age, and I have no hope of attaining great upper body strength. Also, I have always been athletically challenged—I have seen my friends and family laugh when I've attempted to play golf or tennis. Coordination is not my strong point.

While I may not think as quickly as my husband, as deeply as my daughter or as creatively as my son, I am the queen of positive and practical thought. That's how I know, positively, that I could not manoeuvre a chair with the skill that Christian does. What I could do is to continue to live my life with enthusiasm and gusto.

There is no harm is recognizing you weaknesses, so long as you maximize your strengths. Don't be a quitter. Sure, it's much easier to convince yourself of what you can't do rather than what you can. However, it's much harder to live an unfulfilled life than one which is rewarding.

I expect that if I had ended up requiring a wheelchair as the result of an accident, my attempts would have been lovingly mocked by my family. That's OK, so long as I knew I was doing my best.

Reprinted with permission from www.cripcollege.com