Probably many of you have not heard of Claire Wineland. She was a cystic fibrosis activist who passed away at the tender age of just 21 years. A sufferer of cystic fibrosis herself, the young girl inspired millions of people in the world through her short but very strong messages. In this message, she inspires people to transform their thinking style in the direst of conditions and situations.
Claire begins her message by saying that when we pity sick people, we take away their power. She said that she is 100 percent sick herself and she knows it well. But despite that, she is extremely happy and content with her life.
She emphasizes that instead of pitying sick people, we should always try to empower them. We have a general tendency and notion that when someone is sick, they cannot be happy like a normal person. And this notion needs to be changed. We should convey to sick people that their happiness and joy in life are integrally related to their health.
Claire Wineland transformed all her hospital rooms
She narrates in the inspiring message how being stuck in the hospital upset her tremendously. But she transformed the hospital room into a room of her choice by buying items and redecorating the room. Nurses and doctors from all over the hospital came to see the room. From then on, whenever she went to a hospital, she transformed and decked up her hospital room.
She also says that along with patients, doctors, nurses and everyone related to the healthcare industry has a strong notion that a hospital room is a cold, colorless, white place where sick people go and that is the end. No one ever thinks that something good can be done in hospital rooms. Then she compares our lives to her hospital room. She says that we are stuck with ideas of good or bad and refuse to change them. We have preset notions of things and stick to them.
But what we don’t realize is that we can make our lives beautiful with whatever we have. Claire Wineland says we can make our lives into a piece of art. As humans, we can turn our life into something worthy and beautiful. When we look at a sick person, we pity them in the first instance. And why do we do that? Because we have a set notion that as they are sick their life is less joyous than other people. Life will not stop unfolding itself because you are sick. There is beauty in life even when it is not the way you suppose it to be.
As a patient of cystic fibrosis, Claire Wineland spent most of her life in hospital, yet she was happy and proud of her life. She strongly opines that the whole of our life we keep waiting for things — health, wealth, happiness, etc. And in all this, we forget living. She says that most of us don’t ever look at “valuable” things that we have; rather we concentrate on the pains and the regrets. We must look for beauty in life and make something with it.
Claire Wineland beautifully explains that for art and innovation to happen, there has to be some form of suffering. Most of us bow down to the suffering and think that we have nothing to contribute to the world. It is here that she encourages all to stop pitying sick people and think that even their life is beautiful in some way. We all have something to contribute to the beautiful story and make it worthwhile. And when we can do this, we can change the world for the better.
