to be here to talk about my journey to talk about the wheelchair and the freedom it has bought
i started using a wheelchair sixteen years ago when an extendedillness changed the way i could access the world
when i started using the wheelchair it was a tremendous new freedom i 'd seen my life slip away and become restricted it was like having an enormous new toy i could whiz around and feel the wind in my face again just being out on the street was exhilarating
to be in a wheelchair
they used words like limitation fear pity and restriction
as a result i knew i needed to make my own stories about this experience new narratives to reclaim my identity
by creating unexpected images
when i literally started leaving traces of my joy and freedom it was exciting to see the interested and surprised responses from people
it seemed to open up new perspectives
so when i began to dive in two thousand and five i realized scuba gear extends your range of activity in just the same way as a wheelchair does
and the underwater wheelchair
that has resulted has taken me on the most amazing journey over the last seven years
so to give you an idea of what that 's like i 'd like to share with you one of the outcomes from creating this spectacle and show you what an amazing journey it 's taken me on
the
amazing experience beyond most other things i 've experienced in life i literally have
and the incrediblyunexpected thing is that other people seem to see and feel that too their eyes literally light up and they say things like
they have to think in a completely
and i think that moment of completely new thought perhaps creates a freedom that spreads to the rest of other people 's lives
the joy it brings when instead of focusing on loss or limitation
we see and discover the power and joy of seeing the world from exciting new perspectives for me the wheelchair becomes a vehicle for transformation
pushed me through into a new way of being into new dimensions and into a new level of consciousness and the other thing is that because nobody 's seen or heard of an underwater wheelchair before and creating this spectacle is about creating new ways of seeing being and knowing
now you have this concept in your mind
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