Walking On Whip Cream Stilts

This October marks the one year anniversary of my recovery from a pancreas transplant. I had the surgery in September but It was Oct. 10th that I was released from the hospital for the last time.
Any one who has ever experienced major surgery, long term illness, or a significant health catastrophy knows that getting out of the hospital is not the end; it's the beginning.
When I was finally able to come home and get my life back, I discovered that I was not on the solid ground I hoped for.
October was the kick-off of my blog tour for "Killing Casanova", the St. George Heritage Writers Guild's Writers conference, and the release of "Killing Casanova in paperback. I had 18 external stitches stretching from my ribs to below my belly button, three boys who were behind in their school work, and 230 thousand dollars in medical bills. I was in so much pain I couldn't sit or stand for more than a few minutes, and the worst part- After 32 years of loosing my sight, my kidney's, and a normal life to type 1 Diabetes...I was still a diabetic.
A good friend of mine asked me recently: "What did you do to survive?
Before I answered her, I had to think. What do I do to survive. Better yet, to thrive.
I don't believe I was born to just survive, although a good part of walking around every day is pure gut wrenching will to survive. I believe my life is meant to be full of love, joy, strength and knowledge. Those traits must be acquired though. It is more than a survival instinct, it is an expansion of my soul.
So many times when we face challenges in life we stand at the base of a towering cliff of problems with nothing more to climb with than a pair of whipped cream stilts. It feels impossible.
That's because the base of that cliff gives us the wrong perspective.
We're not required to climb the cliff right now, or even today. We are only required to take the first step.
For some of us the first step will be to sit down, cry, and stuff our faces with the whipped cream. For some it will mean clawing one hand or one foot up the rock. However, it doesn't matter. One day, one minute, one breath at a time scale that cliff.
Don't look down until you reach the top. Don't count how far you've come until you're finished climbing. Don't try walking on those whipped cream stilts.
Put what went wrong behind you. Focus on today. And Climb.