Craig DeMartino's Life Day
01.30.2008

We're over half way when it hits me like a ton o bricks. I'm back climbing in Yosemite, on the Captian, and I feel GOOD. Something I haven't felt for years. As we swing leads, it's like I'm back to being the regular person I always was, the way God made me. A climber, dad and husband; not a disabled, crippled-up trauma survivor. I was finally feeling like the person I was made to be, only better, because now I have the insight of almost dying.

There is NOTHING like falling 100 feet, almost dying, loosing a leg, fusing your back, breaking your neck and having a spinal cord injury, to get you focused on the things that really matter in life. People look at my leg with sadness in their eyes and it's easy for me to see why. I realize I did the same thing before it was me. When I saw a wheelchair or an amputee, I was shocked and sad. I felt like they had lost their life. In truth, it was me that was lost.

I was given a second chance to be the person I should have been all along. I wish I could say I hit the mark everyday, but I can't. In fact I miss more than I hit. But now I have the amazing insight of what it's like to live. The climbs are more fun, my wife and kids are my focus and, instead of just taking, I've learned to give.

As Hans and I top out in the early evening light and we shake hands and high five, I realize that it's not about being on top or how fast we climbed the route. It's about being who I should be, who we should all be and treating the rest of the world as we want to be treated. When I got hurt, people gave their time and talents to help me get better, to be whole. That's who I want to be.

My Life Day was about waking up to the world around me instead of MY own little world. And jumping headlong into that world with the same love and support so many had shown me.

Craig Demartino
30 January 2008