If I still had my legs, I would be in line for a battalion command, and instead, I'm flying a desk.
Tammy DuckworthRead
Sometimes it takes dealing with a disability - the trauma, the relearning, the months of rehabilitation therapy - to uncover our true abilities and how we can put them to work for us in ways we may have never imagined.
Interpretation
Facing a disability can reveal one's hidden strengths and abilities.
This quote by Tammy Duckworth emphasizes that through the challenges of dealing with a disability, individuals can discover their true capabilities and learn how to utilize them in ways they may not have previously considered. It highlights the importance of resilience and the potential for personal growth that arises from adversity.
In practice
During a motivational speech at a rehabilitation center, one could share this quote to inspire those facing physical challenges.
If I still had my legs, I would be in line for a battalion command, and instead, I'm flying a desk.
It was the combination of hard work and a hand up that allowed me to become one of the first women to fly in combat missions and achieve my American Dream.
I went to Iraq in 2004 because I believe in doing my duty, not because I agreed with the war.
The women putting their lives at risk for our country deserve better than to be treated as second-class citizens.
The wheelchair and the prosthesis give me a soapbox to stand on. If it helps me get my message across, I'm glad; then we need to talk about what we need to do for this country.
As I recovered at Walter Reed, I worried about the soldiers who pulled me out of my helicopter that Friday afternoon. Would they make it back okay? And what about all the other soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines and Coast Guardsmen who were also putting their lives on the line every day?
My parents witnessed firsthand in Haiti that if you stop speaking up, one day you'll wake up afraid to speak. They came to America so they'd never be afraid of speaking up again.
Few of us will do the spectacular deeds of heroism that spread themselves across the pages of our newspapers in big black headlines. But we can all be heroic in the little things of everyday life. We can do the helpful things, say the kind words, meet our difficulties with courage and high hearts, stand up for the right when the cost is high, keep our word even though it means sacrifice, be a giver instead of a destroyer. Often this quiet, humble heroism is the greatest heroism of all.
and even when I was broken the way sometimes one can be broken, and even though I had fallen, I found upon arising that I was stronger than before, that the glories, if I may call them that, which I had loved so much and that had been darkened in my fall, were shinning even brighter and nearly everytime subsequently I have fallen and darkness has come over me, they have obstinately arisen, not as they were, but brighter.
Tonight, I ask for your prayers for all those who grieve, for the children whose worlds have been shattered, for all whose sense of safety and security has been threatened. And I pray they will be comforted by a power greater than any of us, spoken through the ages in Psalm 23: "Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me."
Human beings are made up of flesh and blood, and a miracle fiber called courage.
Our mistreatment was just not right, and I was tired of it.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.