My Teacher Today: A Thirteen Year Old Girl Named Claire

A couple of months ago, on one of my rare surfs through the mysterious and sometimes treacherous waters of Facebook, I came across a video that made me love the human race even more.

The video was of thirteen-year old Claire Wineland sharing about her journey with cystic fibrosis (CF).

Those big doctor words don't mean much until you meet someone that is carrying the label around, usually weighted down by the heaviness of the diagnosis.

And with CF the diagnosis is difficult: cystic fibrosis is a genetic disease that causes heavy mucus buildup in the lungs and digestive organs, causing infections, digestive issues, and often early death.

For most of her life Claire has traveled in and out of hospitals, and she spends literally hours everyday clearing her lungs and taking special medications. Last year she spent 17 days in a coma.

But her illness is not a weight to this little girl. She is not resigned, she is on fire to educate and help others with CF, and to enjoy her life to the fullest. The girl has more spunk and heart and vision than most healthy adults I know, and her capacity to make things happen on a huge scale catches me on fire about the immense potential each of us has to make change.

This morning I found a new video Claire did on You Tube, sharing her five steps to following through on goals. She recorded the video right before going into ICU for a lung infection.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKY_owo4PO4&feature=channel_video_title

In her words: "Why are we here? I don't know the answer to that. But what I think is that we are here to affect other people's lives."

And this is one thing that Claire does daily with her blog posts, video, and by sharing her story.


Today I'm going to print out a picture of Claire and put on my altar, both to use as an anchor to pray for her and all children who have chronic illness, and as a reminder of the power of faith and the power of setting and completing goals. I'm going to bring Claire into my heart in the places where I get stuck, or scared, or pull back from my goals because of fear.

May she inspire you, too with her wisdom, courage, and faith.

Here is the original video I watched about Claire's story, which I posted in a newsletter a few months back:

http://www.myfoxla.com/dpp/news/local/lessons-from-claire-20101124

Bright blessings