A Left Hand Story

I was born missing four fingers on my left hand. This was a big challenge for me. The challenge was not how to do things. The challenge was to accept myself as being different than everyone else.  I spent years, hiding my hand in my pocket. I figured, ''out of sight, out of mind.'' Suddenly, it was very important to be honest, and face up to things. You can't sweep things, ''under-the-rug,'' forever.

Over time, I realized that everyone has something they would rather not have.  Everyone is working at accepting something. We are all in the same boat. There are very valuable things that we learn along the way, when we are honest with ourselves.

Any advocacy I may do is in letting people know that it is alright to be who they are. Accepting the situation as it is, is far better than trying to ''pretend'' it is the way we would like things to be. We, next, realize it is ''better,'' to be our self.  This can be a big step for us.