Jessica-What does “Crippled is Beautiful” mean to me?

Crippled is beautiful? What does this mean to me? This is the question that has been on my mind since my beautiful bestie told me she was starting this movement. The reality is that to me crippled has been beautiful since the day I became a member. On July 2010 at the age of 21, I fell asleep driving and was diagnosed with a spinal cord injury. I quickly learned all the ugly parts of this injury, but it wasn't the chair or the disability. I still felt beautiful, and the only thing I knew was that my fingers were a little funny. Entering this community, once having been able bodied I found so much beauty. I belong to a community of fighters who take risks everyday and overcome challenges bigger than the chair. After working as hard as possible to walk again for two years and putting my life on hold, I realized it was time to live in my beautiful crippled body. This was hard for some of the people that love me, but I knew it was God's plan for me. I began to live again! I became the mother my child needed. I received my BS in psychology, I became the supervisor for a mentoring program for newly disabled individuals. I helped those entering my community see the beauty. I worked on my Masters in Social Work and worked with all populations suffering with mental health issues. I am an active member in my community working on establishing a private practice of my own to reach more people. I realized that being a person differently abled, challenged able bodied people to be better. Losing so much control as a person that was a, TAD BIT, controlling showed me the beauty in others. I realized that everywhere I went people who had no obligations to help me, did. I was able to see and inspire beauty in humanity. There are people who are ignorant to the beauty in my community, but I am aware of the beauty my crippled life inspires. With that I can say I figured it out, CRIPPLED IS BEAUTIFUL means exactly what it says. There is beauty everywhere, but our crippled beauty exists to shine a little light on the beauty of others. So to all my beautiful cripples go out and live your lives because you don't know who you could be inspiring!