A Miracle

Miracle: an extremely outstanding or unusual event, thing or accomplishment -W. Clement Stone

If you get ALL what you want in life, will you say it is a miracle? You will surely be astonished of the accomplishment of good career, tones of money, good relationship with everyone and good state of health. That is surely a miracle!

Is it possible?

I’d like to take the story of Henry Viscardi who won the Napoleon Hill Gold Medal for dedicating his life to help the handicapped. This is what he says during the medal giving ceremony, haltingly but proudly he walked to the podium and said:

“I am deeply grateful to receive this medal, named for such a great man, Napoleon Hill. There are many reasons I feel strongly about this. I was born without legs. I spent the first 7 years of my life as a charity patient in a hospital. I didn’t stand on these artificial limbs I wear now until I was 27 years old. All those years, I struggled to survive as a severely crippled child and as a young man horribly deformed.”

“When I was a child, I remember my mother’s explanation when I asked the question, ‘Why me?’ In her simple peasant wisdom, she told me that when it was time for another crippled boy to be born in the world, the Lord and his counselors held a meeting to decide where he would be sent, and the Lord said, ‘I think the Viscardis would be a good family for a crippled boy’.

“That’s the way I feel about you, and about the communities in this land, America, which I love. It has nourished my ideals and given me an opportunity to be free, seek my own destiny…not as a crippled man, but as an equal. In what other land would I have been given the opportunity to be free, to marry the woman I love, to be my own man, and be allowed to do my own thing?”

“Years ago, a doctor made the difference in my life when, for the first time, he stood me up straight tall on the artificial limbs I now wear. I could not pay his bill. He told me that he would be repaid if I would make the difference for one other disabled individual, as he had done for me. I promised him and I pledge to you – that so long as there shall be one disabled individual in the world who prefers the challenges of life to the guaranteed existence, the thrill of existence to the stale calm of subsidized utopia, I shall devote all of my energies to him”.

“Remember: Hope is a duty, not a luxury. To hope is not to just dream..but to turn dreams into reality. Blessed are those who dream dreams and are willing to pay the price to make them come true.”

“As for me, I do not choose to be a common man. It is my right to be uncommon if I can. I seek opportunity, not security. I want to take the calculated risk, to dream and to build, to fall and to succeed. I refuse to barter incentive for a dole. I will not trade freedom for beneficence nor my dignity for a handout. I will not cower before any master nor bend to any threat. It is my heritage to stand erect, proud and unafraid to think and act for myself. To enjoy the benefit of my creation and to face the world boldly and say, ‘This I have done”.

“I have a wish for you. It is the same wish I have for disabled people. I suppose the conventional thing for me to do would be to wish you and them, success and happiness for the rest of your lives. But success and happiness as the world measures it is too easy. I would like to wish you meaning for all the remaining years of your life”.

“For our disabled millions, for you and me, all this is what it means to be an American.”

This story is taken from Think & Grow Rich book by Napoleon Hill himself.

For Henry Viscardi, being crippled, did not stop him from having hope and dream dreams. Obviously he is only physically crippled but his mind, heart and spirit are stronger than any ordinary men and women.

How many are we who are in perfect physical body have achieved like Viscardi? Do we have to be crippled now, to have strong mind, strong heart and strong spirit like him? I do not know Henry Viscardi personally but reviewing from his speech, I liken him as these words:

Desire, hope, faith, positive thinking, love, gratitude, courage and Master of his own life

I love every word of it especially the last one – Master of his own life - as he did not stop at the beginning but he understood the challenge and accepted the challenge given to him by nature and he responds with great desire to be alive and to be alive prosperously. Imagine what will happen if he give up in the beginning? The moment he knows he is crippled, different, and badly deformed; he would not survive those 7 years in the charity hospital.

What elements can we not copy from Henry Viscardi? Although he is crippled but his mindset is much, much healthier than any normal person. He has surely does miracles. He has surely proven that thoughts become things.

Thoughts really do become things.