NEED INSPIRATION???
Last week I spent in Dallas, Texas, enjoying our annual Nature's Sunshine National Convention. On the last evening of our stay, Greg Halliday, shared with us (about 2000 NSP managers) the story of Richard and Dick Hoyt. You could see and feel the emotions flowing in Greg's words and face as he told us the story. A story of true inspiration!
The Hoyt family are the kind of people who make you want to be a better person, better parent, better friend, and simple said more Grateful for everyday, every moment, every relationship, good and bad.
When I returned home and sat down at my computer to do a little email catch-up, I opened the following email from my niece.... in addition, the same forward was in my email box from about 15 separate people who had also been touched by this story over the past week. It is one you just have to share with others, because you know it will bring that same inspiration and feeling of joy and confidence that you too ... CAN!
Share the Health ~ Karen
A note from my niece Jennifer: Some people really GET IT when it comes to understanding life and what it is really all about. Most of us don't. Most of us just coast though day by day struggling against ourselves and our circumstance and never really do life like it was intended to be done. I hope you'll take time to read this short story and watch the short video at the end. It will give you a fresh perspective on life. I hope it will motivate you to stop and consider your life and what you are giving to others.
The word CAN'T is never in Richard or Dick Hoyt's vocabulary!
The Story of Richard and Dick Hoyt
Intro:
Eighty-five times he's pushed his disabled son, Rick, 26.2 miles in marathons. Eight times he's not only pushed him 26.2 miles in a wheelchair but also towed him 2.4 miles in a dinghy while swimming and pedaled him 112 miles in a seat on the handlebars--all in the same day.
Richard's also pulled him cross-country skiing, taken him on his back mountain climbing and once hauled him across the U.S. on a bike. Makes taking your son bowling look a little lame, right?
And what has Rick done for his father? Not much--except save his life.
The love story:
This love story began in Winchester, Mass., 43 years ago, when Rick was strangled by the umbilical cord during birth, leaving him brain-damaged and unable to control his limbs.
`He'll be a vegetable the rest of his life;'' Richard says doctors told him and his wife, Judy, when Rick was nine months old. ``Put him in an institution.''
But the Hoyts weren't buying it. They noticed the way Rick's eyes followed them around the room. When Rick was 11 they took him to the engineering department at Tufts University and asked if there was anything to help the boy communicate. ``No way,'' Richard says he was told. ``There's nothing going on in his brain.''
"Tell him a joke,'' Richard countered. They did. Rick laughed. Turns out a lot was going on in his brain.
Rigged up with a computer that allowed him to control the cursor by touching a switch with the side of his head, Rick was finally able to communicate. First words? ``Go Bruins!'' And after a high school classmate was paralyzed in an accident and the school organized a charity run for him, Rick pecked out, ``Dad, I want to do that.'' Yeah, right. How was Richard, a self-described ``porker'' who never ran more than a mile at a time, going to push his son five miles? Still, he tried. ``Then it was me who was handicapped,'' Richard says. ``I was sore for two weeks.''
That day changed Rick's life. ``Dad,'' he typed, ``when we were running, it felt like I wasn't disabled anymore!''
And that sentence changed Richard's life. He became obsessed with giving Rick that feeling as often as he could. He got into such hard-belly shape that he and Rick were ready to try the 1979 Boston Marathon.
"No way,'' Richard was told by a race official. The Hoyts weren't quite a single runner, and they weren't quite a wheelchair competitor. For a few years Richard and Rick just joined the massive field and ran anyway, then they found a way to get into the race officially: In 1983 they ran another marathon so fast they made the qualifying time for Boston the following year. Then somebody said, ``Hey, Richard, why not a triathlon?'' How's a guy who never learned to swim and hadn't ridden a bike since he was six going to haul his 110-pound kid through a triathlon? Still, Richard tried.
Now they've done 212 triathlons, including four grueling 15-hour Ironmans in Hawaii. It must be a buzzkill to be a 25-year-old stud getting passed by an old guy towing a grown man in a dinghy, don't you think?
Hey, Richard, why not see how you'd do on your own? ``No way,'' he says. Richard does it purely for ``the awesome feeling'' he gets seeing Rick with a cantaloupe smile as they run, swim and ride together.
This year, at ages 65 and 43, Richard and Rick finished their 24th Boston Marathon, in 5,083rd place out of more than 20,000 starters. Their best time'? Two hours, 40 minutes in 1992--only 35 minutes off the world record, which, in case you don't keep track of these things, happens to be held by a guy who was not pushing another man in a wheelchair at the time.
"No question about it,'' Rick types; "My dad is the Father of the Century.''
And Richard got something else out of all this too. Two years ago he had a mild heart attack during a race. Doctors found that one of his arteries was 95% clogged. ``If you hadn't been in such great shape,'' one doctor told him, ``you probably would've died 15 years ago.''
So, in a way, Richard and Rick saved each other's life. Rick, who has his own apartment (he gets home care) and works in Boston, and Richard, retired from the military and living in Holland, Mass., always find ways to be together. They give speeches around the country and compete in some backbreaking race every > weekend, including this Father's Day.
That night, Rick will buy his dad dinner, but the thing he really wants to give him is a gift he can never buy.
"The thing I'd most like,'' Rick types, "is that my dad sit in the chair and I push him once.''
Here's are some videos about this amazing father and son team
TEAM HOYT!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryCTIigaloQ
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-772282914668096494
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4642920755415594672
The Hoyt family are the kind of people who make you want to be a better person, better parent, better friend, and simple said more Grateful for everyday, every moment, every relationship, good and bad.
When I returned home and sat down at my computer to do a little email catch-up, I opened the following email from my niece.... in addition, the same forward was in my email box from about 15 separate people who had also been touched by this story over the past week. It is one you just have to share with others, because you know it will bring that same inspiration and feeling of joy and confidence that you too ... CAN!
Share the Health ~ Karen
A note from my niece Jennifer: Some people really GET IT when it comes to understanding life and what it is really all about. Most of us don't. Most of us just coast though day by day struggling against ourselves and our circumstance and never really do life like it was intended to be done. I hope you'll take time to read this short story and watch the short video at the end. It will give you a fresh perspective on life. I hope it will motivate you to stop and consider your life and what you are giving to others.
The word CAN'T is never in Richard or Dick Hoyt's vocabulary!
The Story of Richard and Dick Hoyt
Intro:
Eighty-five times he's pushed his disabled son, Rick, 26.2 miles in marathons. Eight times he's not only pushed him 26.2 miles in a wheelchair but also towed him 2.4 miles in a dinghy while swimming and pedaled him 112 miles in a seat on the handlebars--all in the same day.
Richard's also pulled him cross-country skiing, taken him on his back mountain climbing and once hauled him across the U.S. on a bike. Makes taking your son bowling look a little lame, right?
And what has Rick done for his father? Not much--except save his life.
The love story:
This love story began in Winchester, Mass., 43 years ago, when Rick was strangled by the umbilical cord during birth, leaving him brain-damaged and unable to control his limbs.
`He'll be a vegetable the rest of his life;'' Richard says doctors told him and his wife, Judy, when Rick was nine months old. ``Put him in an institution.''
But the Hoyts weren't buying it. They noticed the way Rick's eyes followed them around the room. When Rick was 11 they took him to the engineering department at Tufts University and asked if there was anything to help the boy communicate. ``No way,'' Richard says he was told. ``There's nothing going on in his brain.''
"Tell him a joke,'' Richard countered. They did. Rick laughed. Turns out a lot was going on in his brain.
Rigged up with a computer that allowed him to control the cursor by touching a switch with the side of his head, Rick was finally able to communicate. First words? ``Go Bruins!'' And after a high school classmate was paralyzed in an accident and the school organized a charity run for him, Rick pecked out, ``Dad, I want to do that.'' Yeah, right. How was Richard, a self-described ``porker'' who never ran more than a mile at a time, going to push his son five miles? Still, he tried. ``Then it was me who was handicapped,'' Richard says. ``I was sore for two weeks.''
That day changed Rick's life. ``Dad,'' he typed, ``when we were running, it felt like I wasn't disabled anymore!''
And that sentence changed Richard's life. He became obsessed with giving Rick that feeling as often as he could. He got into such hard-belly shape that he and Rick were ready to try the 1979 Boston Marathon.
"No way,'' Richard was told by a race official. The Hoyts weren't quite a single runner, and they weren't quite a wheelchair competitor. For a few years Richard and Rick just joined the massive field and ran anyway, then they found a way to get into the race officially: In 1983 they ran another marathon so fast they made the qualifying time for Boston the following year. Then somebody said, ``Hey, Richard, why not a triathlon?'' How's a guy who never learned to swim and hadn't ridden a bike since he was six going to haul his 110-pound kid through a triathlon? Still, Richard tried.
Now they've done 212 triathlons, including four grueling 15-hour Ironmans in Hawaii. It must be a buzzkill to be a 25-year-old stud getting passed by an old guy towing a grown man in a dinghy, don't you think?
Hey, Richard, why not see how you'd do on your own? ``No way,'' he says. Richard does it purely for ``the awesome feeling'' he gets seeing Rick with a cantaloupe smile as they run, swim and ride together.
This year, at ages 65 and 43, Richard and Rick finished their 24th Boston Marathon, in 5,083rd place out of more than 20,000 starters. Their best time'? Two hours, 40 minutes in 1992--only 35 minutes off the world record, which, in case you don't keep track of these things, happens to be held by a guy who was not pushing another man in a wheelchair at the time.
"No question about it,'' Rick types; "My dad is the Father of the Century.''
And Richard got something else out of all this too. Two years ago he had a mild heart attack during a race. Doctors found that one of his arteries was 95% clogged. ``If you hadn't been in such great shape,'' one doctor told him, ``you probably would've died 15 years ago.''
So, in a way, Richard and Rick saved each other's life. Rick, who has his own apartment (he gets home care) and works in Boston, and Richard, retired from the military and living in Holland, Mass., always find ways to be together. They give speeches around the country and compete in some backbreaking race every > weekend, including this Father's Day.
That night, Rick will buy his dad dinner, but the thing he really wants to give him is a gift he can never buy.
"The thing I'd most like,'' Rick types, "is that my dad sit in the chair and I push him once.''
Here's are some videos about this amazing father and son team
TEAM HOYT!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryCTIigaloQ
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-772282914668096494
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4642920755415594672
posted by Karen Herrmann-DeSantis, Herb Specialist, Natural Health Educator | 9:45 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home