Beatitudes for Disabled People by Marjorie Chappell
Blessed are you that never bids us "hurry up" and more blessed
are you that do not snatch our tasks from our hands to do them
for us, for often we need time rather than help.
Blessed are you who take time to listen to defective speech,
for you help us to know that if we persevere, we can be understood.
Blessed are you who walk with us in public places and ignore the
stares of strangers, for in your companionship we find havens of
relaxation.
Blessed are you who stand beside us as we enter new ventures,
for our failures will be outweighed by times we surprise ourselves
and you.
Blessed are you who ask for our help, for our greatest need is
to be needed.
Blessed are you when by all these things you assure us that the
thing that makes us individuals is not our peculiar muscles,
nor our wounded nervous system,
but is the God-given self that no infirmity can confine.
Blessed are those who realize that I am human and don't expect me
to be saintly just because I am disabled.
Blessed are those who pick things up without being asked.
Blessed are those who understand that sometimes I am weak and
not just lazy.
Blessed are those who forget my disability of the body and see the
shape of my soul.
Blessed are those who see me as a whole person, unique and complete,
and not as a "half" and one of God's mistakes.
Blessed are those who love me just as I am without wondering
what I might have been like.
Blessed are my friends on whom I depend,
for they are the substance and joy of my life!!!!
