Author: Tony Trott
I really don’t like writing about my specific shortcomings or problems that I have, but they are part of having a disability and maybe I need to write about them a little more to let the world know firsthand that while my 
life is far from perfect, I can still be happy.
Recently, I slipped on the floor of the bathroom which is all tile (as the people who did the renovation in 2010 said, “It’s almost a wet-room!”). Fortunately, I have become pretty good at falling, and my hands never let go of the grab bar I was holding, so it was basically my feet sliding in front of me and just sitting down on the floor. Needless to say, I was pretty mad.
After a few minutes and some colorful language, I was able to calm myself down and begin to contemplate how to get back up to my shower chair. When I had the bathroom renovated, I did have grab bars installed in the shower and when I switched from a built-in shower bench to a shower chair, I had another bar installed. So, there were grab bars that I could reach from my seated-on-the-floor position. That was good for my right hand, but what to grab with my left hand? The 
bar I needed to use was about half an inch too high for me to reach comfortably.
This led to more colorful language, but I was able to, after a few minutes, reach that necessary extra half inch and thus pull myself up to a standing position and get back in the shower chair. All told it took me close to an hour and, of course, my adrenaline really got going so falling asleep was tough.
So, how do I stay happy after something like this? It comes down to memory. Sorry Ted Lasso fans, but goldfish do have a decent memory. I’d be lying if I didn’t say during the fall and afterwards, I am frustrated, angry, and mad at my disability. But the situation is resolved, and for me it is best to forget about it and move on. I find it is not productive to get bogged down in bad things that happened to me yesterday. My perspective is that when going from Point A to Point B, a straight line might be simplest and quickest, 
but a disability can throw a lot of loops and curves into the line. Just pulling on the ends is likely to cause a knot which can be a lot more difficult to resolve, but if you take your time and carefully follow all the twists and turns, you will eventually get from Point A to Point B with no knots!
