An Inspirational Person, Jaymac

In our lifetime, we meet many types of people. The ones that stand out for me are the ones who overcome challenges and have a positive outlook on life.

Most recently, I have had the pleasure of communicating with John McLeod, or as he goes by, Jaymac. He writes poetry, and has sent me poems for the site. Through emails, I have had the pleasure of getting to know Jaymac, and his story is an inspiring one.

You see, Jaymac became ill at the age of 10. He had a rheumatoid condition that left him disabled. He was only able to walk with the use of crutches. Jaymac is now 60 years old. He retired in 1991, and to quote Jaymac, "I retired in 1991 when my health crashed very badly and my arms, on which I had, literally, 'walked' with crutches for the best part of 40 years finally decided they'd had enough! Most unsporting of them!!!"

Jaymac talks about life and, as you will read in the paragraph quoted below he has a great outlook on life:

"Life, though, is full of compensations and I have been well blessed throughout my 'Life Journey' with good friends met and made along the way. Life is a kind of swings and roundabouts situation; if you can't kick a football you turn to other pursuits. So I read and learned and learned and read, endlessly curious about the World and its mysteries. I loved and love music and movies, good drama, good quality TV, anything scientific, anything, which makes me think about those things, which lie just beyond understanding. I am also a radio-ham holding a full Class A transmitting license since 1979. So while disability imposes its physical restrictions I am able to go out and meet the world via the air-waves. I speak to other 'Hams' all over the world."

We all face challenges in our lives. But how we handle these challenges, how we look at life is truly what matters. We can all look at life one of two ways:
1. we can focus on the good and move forward, or,
2. we can focus on the negative and wallow in self pity.