Only Positive News

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Sieglinde Schoen Smith just won the International Quilt Association’s Best of Show award. This is the most prestigious award in quilting, but Smith, who has made three quilts in her life, did not make this quilt, a forest full of children, in hopes of winning any awards. She quilted to deal with her grief over the loss of her adult son, John Steven Taylor, in 2001. Smith says the quilt became her psychiatrist. This is an amazing story of creativity overcoming grief and of profound creativity saving a person from the depression of loss. An interesting note - Smith’s husband says, “She can remember color,” and she tells stories of buying fabric in New York that matched a blouse in the closet in California. Indeed a remarkable woman.

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Kim Kendrick, a Tennessee resident, received a phone call telling her that her missing parrot was in Long Island.

She had been outside with the bird in August and the bird had flown off on her.  The man who found the bird couldn’t find it’s owner, so took it home with him to Long Island, New York.

He read a story in the local Tennessee paper and saw that the owner of a parrot was looking for her bird.  So he contacted her and sure enough, it’s Buzzy.

The bird will be returning home next week.

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Some of us dream of dancing, others of us dream of dancing without making utter fools of themselves (myself included).  But for 15-year old Nathalie Calderon, it seemed an even bigger stretch than just learning the right steps.

She’s only got one foot.

She was born with a rare birth defect that her tibia quit growing, so a portion of her leg was amputated when she was a year old.  But that hasn’t stopped her from chasing her dream.  She wanted to dance.

With her prosthetic foot, she took and succeeded in her dance classes to the point that her instructors had no idea she was missing a portion of her lower leg.

What couldn’t we all accomplish if we refused to let our difficulties or disabilities prevent us from chasing after our hopes and dreams?

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Last Monday, millions of Americans watched as the New Orleans Saints ran with tears in their eyes into their newly rebuilt home.  After all the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, the Saints were finally able to come back to their home field.  They performed a miraculous game that many believed that the Saints would not lose no matter who the team was.  They were able to come home and beat the Atlanta Falcons 23 to 3.  The game was only one amazing part of the night as millions of Louisianans packed the stands of the newly rebuilt Superdome.  The rebuilding of the Superdome’s roof alone was $1.5 million dollars and crews worked 24 hours a day repairing the roof.  The walls were covered in a new coat of paint and after the dome had sat in 6 feet of water for seven months after the hurricane, the Saints received a new astro turf field as well.  They never believed that they would be able to repair the dome in time for the Saint’s first home game, but the crews persevered and repaired the dome faster than any other in American history. 

Rebuilding the dome showed America and Louisianans that there was still hope.  Hope that their city could be rebuilt and that their team was ushering in a new era.  Saint’s fans in the dome and at home sat with tears in their eyes as they watched the unveiling of the new dome as well as a spectacular performance of their football team.  Fans continued to occupy the dome long after the game was over.  They cried, laughed, smiled and chanted for their team and their city.

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For three years, the workers at a Wisconsin cheese factory have tried to win the lottery with an employee pool.  Their persistance has finally paid off.  One hundred co-workers joined into the winning lotto pool which won them $208.6 million.  They’d resorted to any number of lucky charms over the years, but this last time they rubbed a Buddha belly which supposedly gives good luck.  Whether or not that charm did the trick or not, after three years, they’re going to be receiving a hefty chunk of change.  Most of the workers intend to continue working, despite their lucky windfall.  What else could we accomplish with some die-hard persistance?

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Shawn Seamons couldn’t live with the guilt.  In grade school, he and his friends would go in to the local Island Market and steal candy.  Lots of it.  Even though he never got caught and probably never would, he couldn’t live with the guilt any longer.  He gave the store’s owner a check for $200 and an apology for the candy he stole years ago.  The store owner doesn’t necessarily expect to get any more checks for candy stolen over the years, but she does appreciate the gesture Seamons made with his.

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She’s only 15 years old, but she has earned multiple scholarships for dancing and she now trains and performs with a senior company.  She performs hip-hop, ballet and tap.  Her audiences love her.  Her instructors are impressed with her talent.  But, that’s not all.  She wears a prosthetic on her right leg because she was born without a tibia in her right leg causing the amputation of her lower right leg.

Calderon was sad as a child because she wanted a leg so that she could be like the other kids her age.  One day she announced that she wanted to be a dancer like her cousin and she started dancing at the age of 13.  She didn’t even mention her prosthetic leg to her instructors.  Her most recent instructor didn’t know about her disability until eight months after he started working with her when she and her mother told him. 

She says it’s not all great – she experiences pain when her knee dislocates and when she gets blisters from her prosthetic, but she works through it to continue to reach her dream.

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Pat McCormick was a four-time gold medallist in diving.  In 1984, Peter Ubberoff began sending his Olympic organizing committee members, which Pat was a part of, to local schools and corporations to speak.  Pat’s first speech was at Windling Elementary in El Puente, CA.  Afterwards, one of the teachers came to her and asked if she could help out any of the children in the school.  Pat began volunteering two mornings per week at the elementary school and began refining her process.  Pat focuses on 3 key attributes in the students: You have to Work, You have to Learn and You have to Surround Yourself with Winners.  Soon after Pat began volunteering there was a dramatic increase in better grades and kids staying in school. 

Today, Pat volunteers at the Workman High School in East LA.  These students are “at-risk” students who are struggling to graduate from high school.  Pat has been able to encourage them to stop joining gangs and stop using drugs.  Pat says that her passion of excellence comes from hardships of her own.  “My father died on skid row, and that’s the motivation I have.  I want to let everyone know if you have a dream and you believe it, you will find a way.  You have to surround yourself with winners, you have to work,” says Pat.  Today, several students have followed Pat’s guidance and have gone for the gold of high school graduation.

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Some people crumble in the face of hardship, and others shine in spite of it.  T.J. Faeser of Biloxi is one of those people who shines.

He had been working as a mechanic and was in his first year of college when he lost his vision.  He’d had hopes to be nurse, but had to put that aside with his vision loss.  Instead, he clung dearly to his desire to help others and started classes to be a dispatcher with the Department of Marine Resources in Mississippi.

Would that the rest of us were so courageous to face whatever adversity came our way and find a new path for ourselves that allows us to help our fellow man.

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