I Can Only Imagine

(Please do not miss the video at the end)

I am so thankful for my family, friends, Chile, and higos secos (dried figs). I’m thankful for big things like the canopy of trees that line our street and clouds that shade us from Chile’s ozone-deprived sky. I am thankful for small things like little squares of Lindt Chocolate and that my shoes finally dried after running in the rain. I am thankful that Ciervo is looking buffer-than-ever swimming and riding his bike every weekend and that he didn’t bring his golf clubs to South America.

The truth is, I can’t imagine what my life would be like without everyone who reads these words. I am thankful for you. I can’t imagine life without a home. I am thankful for the place I hold in your lives. I can’t imagine my life without inspiration. I am thankful for others that inspire me to be more than I am.

Many of you know this story. Please read it and watch the video as if you’re seeing it for the first time. And if you are, then prepare to be inspired.

Rick Hoyt was born with Cerebral Palsy and has been confined to a wheelchair from birth. Doctors told his parents he would be a “vegetable” his whole life, but Dick and Judy Hoyt refused to believe and tried to give their son as much of a normal life as possible.

When Rick was in high school, he told his dad (through the aid of a computer that allows him to talk) that he wanted to do a 5mile race that was being held to help a recently paralyzed athlete. So Dick, a self-described “porker” took up running. That day changed Rick's life. “Dad,” he typed, “When we were running, it felt like I wasn't disabled anymore!''

And that sentence changed Dick's life. He became obsessed with giving Rick that feeling as often as he could. Since that time, they have done 85 marathons, 8 Ironman Triathlons, and a cross country bike trip. Their best marathon time was 2:40 in 1992 - only 35 minutes off the world record which is held by someone who was not pushing another man in a wheelchair at the time.

The thing Rick really wants to give his dad is a gift he can never buy. “The thing I'd most like,” Rick types, “is that my dad sit in the chair and I push him once.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4B-r8KJhlE

Happy Thanksgiving