Hi folks!
Well it’s time, finally that time, I’ve been asked to talk about handling adversity in a panel discussion—something I’ve never done before. But I think it’s time. I’ve been in the dang wheelchair for eighteen years and I think I have something to say–I’m just not used to saying it in front of people.
It’s hard to believe that I’ve written over four hundred columns—about life after Forest’s death, about Madison’s autism, about losing battles to my father’s cancer, and my own paralysis. It was difficult, but so rewarding to write and share because it allowed me to reconnect with friends and family. In many ways, it is how I survived.
But writing was private, just the keyboard and me, with no one there to see my drafts, my edits—and my tears.
I have spoken publicly, though. When I gave the eulogies for my mother’s funeral, my father’s funeral and my son’s funeral, I wrote out every word and rehearsed, just like my dad taught me as I watched him spend twenty hours each week preparing his sermon. I practiced and practiced, even in front of the mirror, so that the words written from the heart could come from the mind, and I could deliver them without falling apart.
But this format is different. I have to respond to questions (gulp) from the audience.
That’s where the “scared spitless” part comes in.
And your help.
Below is the bio that the audience will receive.
If you didn’t know me and read this bio, what would you ask me?
I figure if I get questions from you, I can practice answering them and get a smidge more comfortable so that, well, (gulp again) I won’t fall apart.☺
Becky Smith Galli wondered how many times she could say, “And life has never been the same,” in her first 50 years of life. Despite extraordinary losses—her 17-year-old brother’s death in a water skiing accident, her son’s degenerative undiagnosed disease and subsequent death, her daughter’s autism diagnosis, her divorce and nine days later her own paralysis from a rare inflammation of the spinal cord that began as the flu—she still contends, “no matter what—life can be good.” With over 400 published columns and a completed memoir, her writing career began as a response to paralysis and continues with columns and her newsletter, Thoughtful Thursdays—Lessons from a Resilient Heart.
Thanks in advance for your thoughts. And mine to you this Thursday is:
My best—always,
Becky
Sign Up Here, if you’d like to receive Thoughtful Thursdays via email.
Oh my goodness I think you’ll rock your panel (but I understand your apprehensions!). And I know what you really want from us is a question so …. I suppose my honest response would be based on my experience with my mother in law, who was blind. People would treat her blindness as the elephant in the room type of thing when they actually had some basic questions. So you might anticipate some curiosity about your paralysis (?). Here’s one. What is one of the most frustrating things that has been a part of your life since becoming paralyzed? And conversely is there something humorous or funny that you have observed as someone navigating the world via a wheelchair. Good luck/let us know how it goes!