Clearly, you have the power to rise above your challenges to help others – I just sense that you have the power to rise above your fears and conquer what’s stopping you from progressing in life. You gave me good advice in your e-mail.

I will tell you this: I am a very proudly indpendent person but I have learned to let people help me. I do it for my son. You should do it for yourself.
—Ellen

Well, I think you should send this post to any CN groups that are out there. I’m guessing you’re speaking for a lot of them; caught between disabled and not, balancing between being sighted and not.

Watching my own son work so hard to overcome his disability has taught me so much; I guess to an extent we are all unwilling participants in the disibility classroom of life. It amazes me, though, how much Cole has touched the lives of others.

And I have no doubt that as a Judo sensei you do the same; just by showing up to class and teaching. Those who come to learn from you chose you because you inspire them. That’s a pretty big gift.

In the end we are all fearful of something. It’s what we do with that knowing, I think, that counts. I’ve no doubt that seeing Cole with Ilia has given you the courage to start looking at your circumstances differently. Now you can take this new perspective and apply a better, forward moving energy to those circumstances.

After all, what is there to do when one one goes down the rabbit hole, but come back up?

You rock.

~Michelle
Cole’s Mommy