This week on the podcast we celebrated a pretty big milestone… The release of Episode 50! That means we are only 2 episodes away from an entire year’s worth of conversations and monologues had by yours truly. That is just crazy!
I could have never imagined how much joy, excitement, and purpose this podcasting journey would bring me when I launched that very first episode in May of 2020.
More than the number of episodes, it’s the number of people I have gotten to meet that if it was not for this podcast, I would have never even known existed. By me launching this podcast I have and continue to have the fortune of meeting new people with such amazing life’s stories that I get to then share with the rest of the world. I mean really, what’s better than that?
In this week’s episode I was never so honored than to have the opportunity to sit down with a guy who I’ve only ever known about from a distance, despite living in the same town as one another.
That guy is Robert Mudge.
I wanted to share a few of my biggest takeaways from my conversation had with Robert. If you have not yet listened to our conversation, I would highly recommend you do so. Robert’s story is something I believe everyone should hear as it is yet another reminder to each one of us to stop and be appreciative for the gifts we have been given. Nothing in this life is guaranteed. This blog is to merely act as my personal thoughts on the conversation had with my guest. So, like I said, if you haven’t listened to episode 50, please do yourself the favor and go do so now!
My biggest takeaways from Episode 50
It’s truly amazing what a life-changing impact physical therapy can have, especially when talking about the kind of physical therapy that NextStep Orlando provides. And with that, I of course have to give a HUGE THANK YOU to NextStep Orlando for sponsoring this week’s episode!
How ironic is this… I knew I wanted this particular interview with Robert to be episode 50. And completely unbeknownst to me is that this would put its release the week before Robert’s 20th anniversary of his accident.
Hope is great, and in many circumstances it’s even necessary to help propel us forward, but it can also be a really devastating thing to deal with when things don’t work out the way we had hoped.
It’s kind of a weird comparison to make, my life to Robert’s, a guy who became blind to a guy who became a quadriplegic, yet there are so many parallels between us that I can’t help but relate to so much of what Robert says…
When Robert talks about the way he felt like people weren’t letting him get out of bed, making him so frustrated and confused I related it to the way I felt about my family not letting me have my eyeglasses after I had awoken from surgery to be left blind. My brain couldn’t comprehend the situation and it’s evident that Robert’s mind couldn’t either.
When Robert speaks about going through a time when he knew his injuries would not be permanent, I immediately related that same belief to my own story – knowing I would see again.
We never know how “friends” are going to react when bad things happen to us. Honestly, we don’t know how family members are going to react either. This is why I absolutely loved Robert’s analogy of putting all your friends and family members in a sifter and giving it a shake and see which ones fall through.
Big things take time. And that is where hope and faith come into play.
If he just had 2 right sides, he would be much better off. No bad feelings meant to be directed to the left-handed people in the crowd. LOL.
Robert is an amazing father and inspires me to want to be a dad one day.
But he also admits to the struggles he faces as a dad, like not being able to snatch up his little girl when she is misbehaving or not being able to chase after her when she wants to run and play. That’s what is so great about my conversation with Robert… He doesn’t try to sugarcoat his life. He’s raw and real, letting you see the good and the bad.
I love hearing him talk about his daughter being this perfect little unspoiled human. “She’s a blank slate,” he explains. And even though to the world Robert may be different, may suffer from a disability, to his daughter, he’s her dad!
It’s when he talks about this that I stop and think okay, maybe I could still be a dad that my kids would love. I’ve always viewed it as though I would be that dad my kids regretted. A dad who can’t ride dirt bikes with them or drive them to school. But I guess being a dad is about so much more than stuff like that.
It was really an intriguing conversation when I think about it… These two guys with life changing, life altering disabilities comparing their lives to one another, trying to determine if either of them could handle the other one’s disability.
I’m not sure when Robert wrote this paper, but it was a perfect reminder to us all… Treat others the way you want to be treated – The Golden Rule
And lastly, Don’t worry about taking all the steps, just focus on that next step.
I hope that if you haven’t yet, that you will take the time to listen to my conversation with Robert Mudge. This is just a snapshot of all the amazing topics the two of us dive into.