Be Fearless!

It is hard to believe it was just last weekend that I attended TedxMidAtlantic 2012.  This was my third year attending TedxMidatlantic and I have learned that the most shocking, awe-inspiring, and jaw-dropping talks are usually not those coming out of famous political figures, rather those people who you did not know before, who fight so many battles every day, and after listening to them, your world's boundaries expand, possibilities not only grow, you think anything is possible!  The theme of this year's conference was being fearless.  This is how they phrased it on their program:

When we stop worrying about what might go wrong, we discover what is truely possible.  We celebrate the stories of the people who weren't afraid to fail, who overcame the odds, and persisted when the look was bleak. BE FEARLESS.

And there were some fearless people there, all right.  Now, this is the story that made all hundreds of us go to deep silence, and shed tears together, and yes, it was confirmed there were some good amount of man tears shed during this conference!

The organizers did a nice job of adding beautiful music at the end of each session.  It was good for taking a mental break and changing the mood.  We listened to a nice opera towards the end of a  session, and then when it was done, the moderator slightly announced, oh by the way, the opera singer, Ms. Charity Sunshine, has had two double lung transplants in the past!  While we were chewing on what we had just heard and how such music can come out of having two double lung surgeries, she came on stage for her speech: "Three years ago, today, I came out of a coma after xx many days.  I had to learn to talk, walk, and remember again. ........", and then she went on saying how she started singing again, performing concerts, attending ceremonies of world leaders, etc.  How her new lungs are being rejected by her body again, and how she won't get another transplant, how she faces death every day as she lives, and how she believes through love only we become ethereal.  She expressed her gratitude to her donors, that every breath she takes, every note she sings, is theirs.  How life continues after one dies, if organs are donated to continue and save other lives.

I was overwhelmed by her music, her experience, her speech, and courage.  If she can be a world-class opera singer after two lung transplants and being in coma for so long, what is stopping us to achieve our goals? Be Fearless.

p.s. Below is a CNN story on her.  I will post her talk once it is available via TedXMidatlantic.  Also, here is Chaity's website.