Heroes...

Today, watched Oprah as usual at 4pm and it was very touching. Oprah always invites guests and interview them but today, the guests she invited all went through some sort of trials in their lives.


The first guest she invited was Melissa Etheridge. She is a multi platinum singer that sold more than 25 million records. She was diagnosed with breast cancer at age 43 but she survived after undergoing grueling chemotherapy, she emerged truly triumphant. She was bald and beautiful when she returned and performed at this year's Grammy Awards ceremony, despite feeling weak from the cancer treatment.






This was what she said in her interview with Oprah,

" It was perspective. It was—this is my body and this is my mind, and my mind is still going. My spirit is going. I have love. I have feelings. I have thoughts. I have a whole world going on. But my body is not available to me now. And so I…I now no longer fear death because I know that, yeah, this body goes away…it will terminate. But, that which is inside me goes on and on no matter what. And it really raised me up to that. That energy."

The second guest was Kyle Maynard. He is is one of the most inspiring young men you will ever hear about. Due to a rare birth defect called congenital amputation, Kyle was born without arms and legs. By Kyle's senior year, he was one of the top wrestlers in the state. Today, this astonishing young man is a freshman and a wrestler at the University of Georgia.

As his parents hoped, he does everything any other college kid can do and a whole lot more." He types 50 words a minute as well! "I've always said it's not about what I can do," Kyle says. "It's what I will do, and what I will go out and do is exactly what I have my mind set on doing."

He wrote a book called, "No excuses". What it meant to him was...

"'No excuses' to me," Kyle says, "is just an attitude. It's an attitude that says I can accomplish anything. No matter what it takes, I'm going to go out there and achieve my dreams. If I made an excuse early on in my life, I would have given up a lot of things. But I'm here with you today because I made no excuses.""I think God made me the way I am because now I have the opportunity to go out and speak and write this book. I have the opportunity to reach other people and tell them that anything's possible as long as you carry this attitude with you."

If you look at him during the interview with Oprah, you think he looks so normal and so good looking. And truly, when his sisters were interviewed, they said that his brother can do things better than a lot of 'normal' people. To them, his is more normal than anyone.

The next guest was this guy called Jim Maclaren. In 1985, 22-year-old Jim MacLaren was a 6'5" 300-pound Yale all-American athlete and aspiring actor. His future appeared as unlimited as his ambitions. But one fall day in New York City, Jim was struck by a bus and pronounced dead. "They actually chalked my body on the street," he says.

Ultimately, Jim recovered, but his injuries were serious. Jim lost his left leg below the knee. He was devastated at first, but his courageous spirit liberated his body. After transforming his muscular build into the lean frame of a long-distance runner, Jim became the fastest one-legged endurance athlete on the planet, breaking the marathon world record in 3 hours 16 minutes, and setting the world record in the Ironman Triathlon.

In the middle of an Ironman competition, on a closed course, a van struck Jim and threw him from his bike. At the hospital, doctors delivered a devastating blow. Jim had a broken neck, and he would never again move or feel from his chest down. Heartbroken, Jim could barely cope with the news that he was now quadriplegic. "I don't know if I can do this again," he thought.

Jim faced a choice—to lose himself to his body or to live beyond his so-called "disability." Told he would never move again, doctors only considered the severity of Jim's injuries—not the strength of his will. After enduring thousands of hours of painful rehab, he stunned and inspired all who knew him. His doctors call him a living miracle.

"Initially I was diagnosed as a complete quadriplegic," Jim says. "Complete means you'll get no motor or sensory from your injury and below. … Now I'm [an] incomplete [quadriplegic]. My legs are stronger. You [Oprah] and I, if we had to, could get up and walk out of here. It's not functional, [but] I do it every day for exercise. It's a miracle."

The next story was...

When Emmanuel Yeboah was born without a tibia in his right leg, his mother was advised to kill him. In Ghana, a disabled baby is considered a curse and is either poisoned or left in the forest to die. The lucky ones are hidden away until they can make their way to the streets, where they'll spend the rest of their lives begging.

Emmanuel's mother made a choice to keep her son alive and teach him to transcend all limitations. Every day she carried her son three miles to and from school. At school, Emmanuel was ostracized. But it was when he was turned away from the soccer team that he decided to take a stand. Earning a dollar a day shining shoes, he bought his own ball and offered it to his classmates on one condition—they had to include him on the team.

When Emmanuel's mother died, he chose to honor her life and the lives of Ghana's two million disabled by showing the world that people with disabilities can contribute to society. For 10 days, and with just one leg, Emmanuel rode nearly 400 miles across Ghana—a journey to prove to his country the value of all people. "I believe that I get my strength from my mother," Emmanuel says.

Emmanuel took his mission to the streets by first writing a letter to the Challenged Athletes Foundation, anorganization founded to help Jim MacLaren after his paralyzing accident. After communicating long distances, Emmanuel and Jim finally met face-to-face and learned that they shared more in common than a disability.

Jim and Emmanuel's story is documented in Emmanuel's Gift, a film narrated by Oprah. So, if it comes out in the movies or TV, do catch it!

The Oprah show ended with a new song by Melissa Etheridge called, "I run for life". It is a very touching song about not losing your faith and running despite your sufferings or pains. I shed a tear when she was singing cos the lyrics and the song gave hope...