<\/p>\n
Gratitude and appreciation. How many memes do we receive on a daily basis preaching just this? If I had a meme generator, I\u2019d picture Desiree Levin and it would say: If I can feel it, so can you.<\/p>\n
Desiree puts all her feelings of positivity and appreciation down to something her father always said: \u201cOne needs to have hindsight to have foresight.\u201d With hindsight, Desiree learned that what might have been a crushing blow to her life turned out to be the greatest thing that ever happened to her, opening doors to some of the best experiences of her life. This was no simple realisation. A provincial sportswoman in table tennis, squash, and golf, Desiree turned to lawn bowls after a car accident impaired her ability to play. But it was when she was left disabled due to an incomplete recovery after falling ill with Guillain Barre Syndrome (GBS) at the age of 57 that life really taught her how to see the best in even the worst situation.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter the illness I spent hours every day in rehabilitation, and it was only after two years of intense work and effort towards recovery that I was told that I was among the minor percentage of people who wouldn\u2019t make a full recovery from GBS, and that I would be disabled for the rest of my life.\u201d This came as a shock, because Desiree was also one of the very few people who did not go into ICU when she had GBS, but it turned out that she was also one of the few who wound up with permanent axonal (nerve fibre) damage. \u201cLiving in such pain and hearing this news, I felt that I couldn\u2019t go on, that I could not live like this.\u201d Initially, the recovery process, as the nerve linings regrew, was \u201cincredibly painful\u201d, but her father always said, \u201cThis too will pass.\u201d \u201cHaving the responsibility of caring for my mother and brother, I did not know how I could live with this ailment. This is when I reflected on my father\u2019s teaching of “fired and tempered steel is strong steel”. And so, Desiree motored on.<\/p>\n
Having no medical aid, Desiree volunteered herself at the University of Johannesburg for the Biokinetics students to use as a \u2018dummy\u2019, to learn from and on whom to practice their growing skills. \u201cI told them \u2013 you can do with me whatever you need to, but just fix me.\u201d Not one to wallow in self-pity for even one moment, these sessions with the budding Biokineticists turned out to be a most uplifting and positive experience for Desiree, who herself learned about the body and her recovery as much as the students learned about it from her physical condition.<\/p>\n
And so, on every level of her life, Desiree learned to find the joy and the good despite her physical constraints. \u201cI had been a swimmer in my youth, and I began returning \u2018home\u2019 to my hometown Durban more often to relax and rejuvenate my mind, but most of all to swim in the sea, which became an elixir for me along with my walks on the beach.\u201d She became known as \u201cthe granny who crawls into the sea\u201d, because the lack of proprioperception (awareness of posture, balance, and position) left her incapable of entering the moving water. \u201cI would notify the lifeguards that I was going for a swim and that they should be extra vigilant watching me. We became fast friends, and I have the fondest memories of these restorative swims and of the lifeguards pushing me across the promenade, seeing Durban beach from my new vantage point.\u201d<\/p>\n
These experiences as a disabled woman enhanced her perspective on life and opened her up to a level of appreciation she had never experienced before. \u201cMy parents taught me that without a challenge in life, there cannot be enthusiasm, and to be enthusiastic, one must face the challenge by the process of positive thinking. This develops morale and can carry one through the roughest obstructions in life. This is what I applied in my recovery and to my subsequent permanent disability.\u201d Desiree\u2019s belief and faith\u00a0in her \u201cpositive approach, in the energy of life situations, and in Hashem\u201d brought her to where she is today.<\/p>\n
Since the day she became disabled nine years ago, Desiree has never been afraid to classify herself as such, not shying away from a perceived inability, but rather viewing herself as having gained opportunities to extend her abilities. Now, Desiree reaches out to others who have trouble coming to terms with their disabilities and also to able-bodied people to encourage understanding and empathy, love and gratitude among all. \u201cSo many people require help in life. Everyone has struggles, which might be social, financial, emotional, mental, or physical. I always reach out to people to do as much as they can within their limitations, with what I like to see as my honest, critical, yet encouraging eye \u2013 to show people their shortcomings and that they can overcome them. And when I do, people find me positive and inspiring.\u201d<\/p>\n
But nowhere does Desiree make this a reality more than in her bowling, which Desiree sees as the \u201cgreat equaliser of all sports\u201d, because she plays both abled and disabled bowls and excels in both. \u201cOn one of my most wonderful trips to Durban I was invited to play in the National Championship for the Disabled, and I won. And this victory gave me the opportunity to be considered for the World Championship in New Zealand, which I competed in after being selected as a Protea and there I won two bronze medals.\u201d Desiree went on to win the National Championships for the Disabled for the next four consecutive years, leading her to be shortlisted for selection for the Commonwealth Games. \u201cThis was a proud moment \u2013 because I am the only woman, and the only Jew, to have achieved this.\u201d Her sport gave her the go-getter attitude necessary to win, but never to create harm for anyone else, and \u201cto win gracefully and lose with dignity\u201d – a lesson she learned from her late mother.<\/p>\n
How does Desiree stay so motivated and positive despite the lemons life gives her? \u201cGam zu le tovah \u2013 this too is for the good \u2013 is a mantra that I repeat at every one of my speeches, because no matter what happens in life it is for the good, and one should make it for the good.\u201d She refers back to her father, who taught her that, without gratitude in life, one has nothing in life. And Desiree feels appreciation and thankfulness for even being able to try the things she does or aspires to do on a daily basis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Giving thanks for an illness suffered By Chandrea Serebro Gratitude and appreciation. How many memes do we receive on a daily basis preaching just this? If I had a meme generator, I\u2019d picture Desiree Levin and it would say: If I can feel it, so can you. Desiree puts all her feelings of positivity and appreciation down to something her father always said: \u201cOne needs to have hindsight to have foresight.\u201d With hindsight, Desiree learned that what might have been a crushing blow to her life turned out to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":1006,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-994","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-february-2018"],"gutentor_comment":0,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishlife.co.za\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/994","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishlife.co.za\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishlife.co.za\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishlife.co.za\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishlife.co.za\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=994"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishlife.co.za\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/994\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":995,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishlife.co.za\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/994\/revisions\/995"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishlife.co.za\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishlife.co.za\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishlife.co.za\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishlife.co.za\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}