“When you get into a tight place, and everything goes against you, till it seems as though you could not hang on a minute longer, never give up then, for that is just the place and the time that the tide will turn.” — Harriet Beecher Stowe

There are days when getting out of bed in the morning is hard. When I want to give up. Whatever that means. The hard days. Sometimes they are so hard. Sometimes it feels like I cannot keep moving. I am tired. I am ready to be there. In the space where setbacks don’t feel so big. When the stresses of daily life do not feel so stressful.

When I look back at us, since the accident, I know that we have come a long way. We are not quite as fragile as we once were. We are becoming more accepting of this life. Of ourselves. We are starting to make plans for the future. We are moving forward. Though it can be scary. Though our legs are tired.

Sometimes on this journey, all we really have is one foot in front of the other. I am starting to realize how far this can take us. One foot in front of the other can take us across the world. It can take us one step further away from the ripples. It can move us toward joy and away from pain. It can take us to a warm campfire in a damp wilderness. It can take us to the places we were meant to visit, and into the moments we are meant to live.

Life after a helicopter accident is not easy. Life after any trauma sets us upon a road we do not recognize, and it forces us to walk forward one day at a time. Some days we awake to find the sun shinning and a skip in our step. Other days we awake to a downpour, with sore feet and blisters on our toes. Like the weather, day to day we do not know what to expect.

It is only upon looking back, that we can see how far we have come. The distances we have travelled. The mountains we have climbed. The troubles we have met and the adversities we have overcome. The friends we have made, the adventures we have lived and the scenery at which we have marvelled.

Chris and I are starting to get to the point where we have a bit of hindsight. Where we can look back and see how the accident has affected us. Changed us. Morphed us. I now understand, that though the bad days may feel impossible to conquer, I have conquered many already. I know that after the rain, sometimes a rainbow will present me with its beauty in the rapidly clearing skies. I have come to realize that sometimes all we really have is that one step. One step followed by another becomes a lifetime. It becomes our journey. It becomes who we are.