My friend introduces me to a woman named Angela who had sustained an injury while on duty during the first Iraq war.  She became an L1 paraplegic, and suffered a life of incredible pain.  As part of her healing process, she began an adaptive rowing program.

Angela has since become a transoceanic rower.  She was the first disabled woman to row across the Atlantic.  She rowed around the United Kingdom, and was the first disabled woman to row across the Indian Ocean. 

The first thing I asked her of her oceanic journeys was, “What was the coolest wildlife you saw?”  She gave me a momentary pause, so I said, “you don’t get that question very often, do you?”  She talked about the massive sea turtles that she could see underneath her rowing craft, and the shark that stayed with her boat for several days in the Indian Ocean.

She talked about sleeping in the tiny cockpit during storms, and about the threat of falling off the boat in extreme weather.  Angela is an athlete, and a prominent member of the disabled community.  But she is also a traveler, and an adventurer who has seen a world beyond my wildest dreams.

I think about my having second thoughts about a small walk through the flowers.  I think about my tennis elbow, how the devil on my shoulder had such a feeble excuse to try to keep me back, and I vow never to forget Angela when that little devil says to stay home. 

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