Day 42: Families are Forever

Throughout my journey over this life I have come across so many beautiful people who I chose to say are my family. There are those who you just meet on the off chance, like the Abbott family who we literally just bumped into us in a crowded darkened room at a Tony Robbins event 6 months ago. This beautiful family have 11 children and like a mother hen Angela has scooped up our little family (in comparison to hers) warts and all, under her wings and has shared her love for life and passion with us. Oman the Daddio of this clan reached out with a warm hug in the auditorium of the Date with Destiny event and from that day onwards we have been hooked. We consider these precious people our brothers and sisters and feel grateful to have them in our lives.

The Tony Robbins events have been a real gift to us especially with finding more and more people to add to our list of family members. I now consider every person in our fire crew our family. Every veteran in that crew embraced my Blindman and myself like they had known us forever. In just 18 hours that it took to us all to build that fire It secured an investment in the lives of these people for life. This crew truly care about others and the warmness that came from the heat wasn't from the fire we built it was felt from the hearts they shared. 

During this past four days I noticed one of our team could not find the words to express his experience. He was the quiet one, with an awkwardness about him that I just could not put my finger on. This man was placed in the water crew with my Blindman and although throughout the day the water team floated around and helped with just about anything from sweeping to cutting kindling this man looked lonely for most of the journey. That was until after all was said and done he reached out to my husband to give him a hug and tell him how much he appreciated being on crew with him. Up until this point my visual perception of this man had probably stopped me from jelling with him as quickly as any one else on the team. Yes I'm not perfect and I do have my floors...and I admit that I naturally radiate to people who are vibrant and are in my face, but Deano has a talent for radiating his love to those who may feel intimated by my sometimes overwhelming presence. 
This is not the first time he has made friends with someone who has felt shy about themselves or have perhaps considered themselves unworthy of being part of a group. Deano would never know if these people were shy based on how they looked  because he can't see their outside appearance or any body language that would indicate to a sighted person their reluctance to fit in. 

Being blind for Deano is a gift to him, to me and to others. It's a talent to not see the full package, the outside chocolate layer and to only see the often soft centre that's at a persons core. Just like any Darrel Lea soft centred chocolate,  it's that gooey centre that is the most sweet and Deano seems to get a taste of that more often than the rest of us...(so why am I so fat? I feel that's a question for another blog!)

At the end of the night when all the 4000 participants had gone home I watched as this socially awkward man was embracing my Blindman in a huge man hug. He was telling my husband that this Blindman had made his night. I don't know what Deano did to get such an honour but I do know that He loves those who come into his path, wether it's because he literally bumps into them or because they go out of their way to say g'day. It's really a blessing and something I am proud of him for because through Deano's challenges he is teaching me to reach out with love and acceptance and this is gift worthy of embracing.