Second Wind

A funny thing happened to me on my ride into the sunset. I took a left turn.

Somehow, somewhere, but not somewhat, the slumping shoulders straightened.

It’s like swimming laps with the timing clock ticking off the few seconds of rest and hearing myself whimper that I can’t do it and hearing my other self say you are doing it but if you keep listening to yourself say you can’t do it you’ll stop and you control that, not the clock, not the water, not the other swimmers, just you alone, so decide.

So the decision that I made, without actually being aware of it, was to live my life as an openly disabled person, to make no secret or excuses for my hearing disability, ask for reasonable accommodations, be brave enough to risk making mistakes and keep doing the work I do. My twenty year old business, Wilberg Community Planning LLC, is alive and thriving. I love my work. Why leave what I love? No Going Out of Business Sale here.

A well-meaning friend, eyebrows arched, once said to me, “Well, you don’t want to wait too long to quit,” as if I was a baseball pitcher with a fragile elbow.

What does that mean – waiting too long? I’m 66. Is that already too long? Who decides when’s too long? Oh, wait!

I decide. I forgot.