“Some days you are the bird, and other days you are the statue.”
Two weeks ago, I was privileged to present my keynote at the state conference for the Brain Injury Association of Tennessee. I made several new friends, and among them was Bernie Goggins. Bernie shared one of his precious moments with me; the day he felt a bird poop on his arm.
While most of us would have looked up with disgust, Bernie jumped for joy. You see, one of the residuals from Bernie’s traumatic brain injury was that he lost his sense of feeling. When Bernie took a shower, he could not feel the water hit his skin.
It started out to be an ordinary day when Bernie took his walk. But it turned out to be a magical moment, because he FELT something land on his arm! It didn’t matter to Bernie that he was the bull’s eye on the target for some bird. What mattered was when the bird poop splattered on his arm, he felt it!
A sense of humor is your ability to enjoy life’s ironies and appreciate the amusement life provides. No longer will I fret over the bird poop eating into the paint of my car without smiling and remembering Bernie Goggins.