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I came to Boston for the first time 363 days ago. What I found was a city, justifiably, traumatized by the horrific events that took place just days earlier at it’s cherished Marathon. And what I also found was a sense of community unlike anything I had ever seen.

Through that strong sense of community, I was overwhelmingly welcomed by sharing my personal story to a few amazing people. The story I shared was one of hope. One of living with limb loss for 37 years. And one of telling people that their lives would one-day return to their new “normal”.

Four trips later and ready to board a homeward-bound plane, I remain forever grateful for what Boston has meant to me. And being at yesterday’s Marathon to finally experience the magic of the beloved Marathon Monday, I saw that the race had been run and the finish line was crossed. My work here is done.

With that, I leave with a full heart in knowing that the friendships will continue and the impact it had on me will never fade.

Be the good.

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For those who know me well, you know how much I love basketball. And that’s why I’m thrilled to be part of the United Amputee Basketball Association’s 2014 Titanium Cup. Hosted by Phillips Arena, this tournament will show people that life with limb loss is far from limiting.
Because we need one final push to make it happen, we’re doing some fundraising.
The money raised will buy tickets for area youth to attend the Hawks vs. Raptors game just following the tourney.
Thank you for any and all support!!!

http://www.gofundme.com/7kpp14

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10bw_touchupcrop3.jpgCliches about beauty.  If it isn’t one thing to be beautiful on the inside, it’s another to be beautiful in the eye of whomever is beholding us.  And if beauty is only skin deep, then why should physical beauty or appearance even matter?

It does matter.  And it matters because we are inundated with images of what is considered physically beautiful.  Based on the the images that dominate mainstream media, beauty is manifested in women with impossibly languid figures, structured facial features, and perfectly poreless skin.

Because a prosthetic leg is part of my “physicality”, I’ve gratefully believed that physical beauty is individually unique and not to be compared to others.  And growing up female in a society where looks do matter, I clung to this notion because the images of women walking the runways or covering the magazines did not equal my own physicality.

But times are changing and so too will the perceptions of what is considered  beautiful.  Thanks to Sheryl Sandberg and her Lean-In organization, together with Getty Images, they are launching the ‘Lean In Collection’ of stock photos.  Ranging from the stock photos that fill magazines, catalogs, advertisments, and other media, the new collection intends to replace the “cliched, sterilized images of women and girls”.

And with the Huffington Post’s recent headline reminding us that ‘Disabled’ Mannequins represent that beauty does not equal perfection,  we are introduced to images that portray the beauty of the human spirit.  The human condition.  The visual manifestations of people accepting the lives they’ve been given.

A woman comfortable in her own skin:  what could be more beautiful than that?