6/15/06 Miracle Woman -- Amy Racina

Last night I had the wonderful opportunity of going to an REI event where Amy Racina was presenting. She is the author of the book, Angels In The Wilderness. If you haven't had a chance to read this book yet, run...don't walk to your nearest library or bookstore. Amy is a true miracle. By all accounts this woman should not be alive today. Amy is an incredible example of what a determined woman can do when life looks a little on the hopeless side.

I think what I get out of Amy's story the most is that bad things happen in life, no matter what. It doesn't matter if you're a good person or a bad person -- things just don't always go your way. What makes life interesting and ultimately how your bad situation is going to turn out, has to do with your attitude. Amy's attitude is upbeat, positive and just plain grateful and because of it -- she's alive today.

Time after time after time, in Amy's survival story -- there's something good. From not breaking her back or arms in the fall, the fact she could scootch her body down a rocky ravine, the people who found her -- almost didn't go hiking BUT did, to the fact that the paperback book she took along to read was of the Aztecs. What's interesting about this was it was a historical fictional novel about the bloody wars of the Aztecs. The fact that Amy had a gaping wound seemed rather normal after reading about dismembered Aztecs running around.

When listening to Amy last night she commented on all the good things that happened to her during her ordeal and she said, "I don't believe in coincidences." I personally don't either. I firmly believe everything happens for a reason. I had this light bulb moment hit me last night when she said this. I came across Amy's book by chance a few months ago as I was going through my custody battle. Her ideas, faith and outlook on life was just what I needed to hear when I would get discouraged and start to loose my faith. Everything does happen for a reason, sometimes it doesn't make a bit of sense at the time, but as time goes by...the pieces of the puzzle fit naturally and start to make a bit of sense.

Here's a picture of Amy with her original backpack(on her left) she wore the day of her fall. At the bottom of the picture you'll see a little titanium cooking pot. This is the pot she banged on like crazy to let her rescuers know where she was. The bottom of this pot has dents all over it, but she says she still uses it and it works great.



I feel very fortunate to have been able to meet Amy face to face and hope to chat with her more in the near feature.

Check out Amy's website at www.angelsinthewilderness.com
to see if she's presenting in your area. Before you go though I highly recommend you read her book, Angels In The Wilderness it'll make the experience of actually meeting her fact to face -- even better.