Faith and the Soul’s Doing
In this season of rebirth and snow, I want to single out one person who represents to me all of the Combination: Faith. Guts to actually live. Communication within. Love of life, and rain, and ocean waves.
Amy Purdy’s story is not about breaking borders. It’s about pushing off of them. And it’s about snow. And dancing.
Born November 7, 1979, Amy grew up strong. As a teenager she started snowboarding, and dreamed of traveling the world.
But at 19 she contracted a deadly strain of bacterial meningitis, which likely would have taken her life, were it not for a voice within, warning her to get to a hospital posthaste. By the time she arrived, her lungs and veins were collapsing; and she was rushed into a coma, put on life support, and then into the operating room. By the end of the day the infection had cost her both of her legs below the knees, both of her kidneys, and her spleen. She was given a 2% chance of survival.
Though unconscious, Amy recalls sensing herself slipping away. Every one of her heartbeats brought her closer to the edge, until: “All of a sudden, I felt my last heartbeat. It was so powerful, it took my breath away.” (A month before a stranger had told Amy that she was soon to cross over.)
“I remember suddenly being in this space…. And I saw a light … kind of a foggy, hazy green light … enough of a light to see that there were three silhouettes standing in front of me … saying, ‘You can come with us, or you can stay…. I love the smell of rain, and I love the sound of the ocean waves. And I thought, ‘There is no way I am ready to give up this stuff.’”
The whole story can be found in an interview with Oprah, in an inspiring TED Talk, and elsewhere online. Let me merely summarize: Amy Purdy designed her own prosthetic feet and lower legs; has won three back-to-back gold medals in para-snowboarding; became the top ranked para-snowboarder in the US; a bronze medal winner at the Sochi Paralympics; a model; an actress (playing a model in a Madonna music video and making her film debut in What’s Bugging Seth); a participant (with her husband) in The Amazing Race; featured in a 2015 Super Bowl advertisement; and runner-up in season 18 of Dancing with the Stars.
It’s amazing what the mind and body are truly capable of. Living beyond limits. And the story goes on, for her.
She’s on my short list. Along with Schweitzer, Lincoln, King, Jane Goodall, and Greta Thunberg.
We have a long way to go, us Deep Weavers. Most of us THANKFULLY with two full arms, two full legs, two full eyes, and two full ears.
Wish ourselves “bon voyage!”