Today I got to spend some time with Aaron Blackstone. Aaron is an associate of The Pacific Institute and lives in West Seattle.
When he was a teenager, he was a top athlete in his school in soccer, wrestling, and track. He also was highly involved in competitive horseback riding year round. A car accident changed all of that. He experienced significant brain trauma and spent 13 weeks in a coma. He lost the use of many of his normal bodily functions. He needed to re-learn how to read, eat, speak, bathe, etc. His life was significantly different than it was before the accident.
What I was struck by most about Aaron, who has now lived more of his life with the injury than before it, was his glow. He is an absolutely positive person. His days aren’t “good”, they are “great”. He lights up a room when he walks in and does even more when he opens his mouth. Everything about who Aaron is now is for the good of the world. He wants to and is changing people’s lives with his perspective on life. It may have been having a near death experience, or it may just have been the supportive family that stood by him and lifted him up, year after year. Aaron has all of the maturity of someone who has gone through difficult life experiences, but very little of the bitterness that can be associated with that.
He has kept a journal for over 15 years that is now over 2,000 pages long. In it, he takes the principles of life that he picks up along the way, and personally applies them to his life. He uses the words “I” and “me” as he builds affirmations about himself. He looks at his accident as a gift. It has changed the course of his life in a way that he would not want to take back if he could.
If anyone could claim to be a victim in life, it would be Aaron, but fortunately, he does not choose to. I make the same choice today as well.
