In early 2007, I was in the final phases of testing to donate a kidney to my brother when I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. That was a double whammy – not only was I disqualified from donating my kidney, but it was because I have diabetes. This news took a while to process and be accepted.
In early 2008, I lost sight in my left eye. I learned that while my diabetes may have been a contributing factor, it was not the cause itself. Fearing I might soon lose the sight in both eyes, my wife and I worked hard to come to terms with this – we needed a new perspective on things. (Pun intended)
Totally unrelated to anything, the perspective change came upon the learning of a fact from the animal kingdom – specifically in the names of animal groups (useless info, I know). We knew that a grouping such as bees is called swarms, and ant’s colonies. Among ocean life, whales are pods, and fish are schools. On land, cattle are herds, sheep and birds are flocks, and a group of lions is a pride. A group of crows is a murder, while tigers are an ambush.
Our attitudes about how we were living each day changed when we learned the designation for rhinos. A rhino is a very large and powerful animal. It can run thirty miles an hour, which is actually faster than a squirrel. What makes this a phenomenon is that rhinos can only see thirty feet in front of them. What made us pause and take note is that rhinos running in concert at full speed plows ahead without knowing what’s at thirty-one feet!
A rhino aligns his sight off the tip of his horn and charges full steam ahead without apprehension. Because of this characteristic, a group of rhinos charging in concert is called a “crash”. In fact, even if they are just hanging about grazing, they are referred to as a crash for their potential.
At this realization, we decided to live each day in a full out tilt, not with abandon, but with only the ability to see what is at thirty feet ahead. We changed our outlook and our attitude on how we live our life, and we decided to be an unstoppable force.
Since that moment, we have redefined how we live and started living in “crash” mode. As a result, we have experienced things we would never have dared try before.
It took the loss of sight for me to discover this. As a reminder of living each day in a crash mode, I keep a toy rhino on my desk. Life has always been an adventure for me, but now I am choosing to see it only thirty feet at a time.
Here’s to living in crash mode with you, not knowing what is at thirty-one feet!
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