I never thought anything like this would ever happen to me.

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I am writing this book about inner strength, and the work of writing it is deep and meaningful for me. Inner strength is not an arbitrary choice of a good subject. It is a quality that is no less than the major theme of my entire life, a lesson that began with a car collision that happened many years ago.

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One moment I was driving home. The next, my car was torn apart by a collision with a total stranger, who was very drunk and speeding very fast, on the wrong side of the road. My body was crushed. My brain was injured. Doctors said I’d never speak again, never function. “Pray for a miracle,” they told my family.

But here’s the part that matters: a part of me never changed.

 

There was a thread. Quiet, constant, always there. Even when I couldn’t think, or speak, or remember who I was. That thread was life itself: stronger than the injuries, stronger than the sadness. It didn’t shout. It didn’t push. It simply stayed.