broken wing

OUR GRATITUDE : 

OUR GRATITUDE By Ann-Marie Cunniff

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When I woke the other morning, I went to my garden, my usual spot to have my morning coffee. I was barely there a moment when I saw this beautiful yellow butterfly circling my Butterfly Bush.

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This year there are two new species that are so beautiful and different that I had never seen before. I slowly went into the house to get my camera and was lucky enough to find the yellow butterfly was still there.

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I began to take pictures of him, and even though my camera was focused on the highest setting, it took me three or four pictures before I realized that this butterfly had a broken wing. I had, at that point; only seen the beauty in him.

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Many people are like this Butterfly, their illness or disability is invisible. There are many physical and mental disabilities that do not show, and sometimes when others learn about these invisible disabilities it frightens them, and the beauty seen is lost and replaced by fear.

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The same is true of people, there is beauty in all of us yet some find it more difficult to function in the able bodied world. I was one of those people. The clinical depression that I carried through most of my adult life, manifested as Agoraphobia after the sudden death of my sister.

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Imprisoned in my home, fearful of the outside, I stayed there for a long time before I found my way out. I began to get treatment for this illness but the suggestion from my doctors was a “day program,” a place to set my sites on everyday to motivate me out of my home, and widen my comfort zone.

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Sadly we found that the only programs available were for the mentally challenged and there were no resources for me, or for many people like me to try to overcome this fear. I did find my way out and how I did it is what I want to share with others by creating a “day program “ for high functioning disabled adults that gives them a place to go everyday to expand their comfort zones and create a life different from the one they are living now.

Norton Community : 

Norton Community By Ann-Marie Cunniff 508-622-0154 acunniff4852@gmail.com