Brian Fullford

“Despite the struggle, every face is full of joy, a joy that comes from giving of themselves, and I am at the center of it all. I can’t stop smiling. They say it is better to give than to receive, but right now the gift I am receiving is incredible, indescribable. This is one of the most humbling experiences of my entire life, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything.”
― Patrick Gray, I'll Push You: A Journey of 500 Miles, Two Best Friends, and One Wheelchair

“Though Justin has breathed encouraging words into my ears ever since our initial climb up the Pyrenees, it hasn’t been his words that have pushed me as much as who he is. Every day, I have watched him embrace my help and the help of others, and those days have all led to this moment. By letting go of control and welcoming the strength of others to do what he cannot, Justin has been pushing me to let go of my need for control, to let go of comfort, to let go of safety, to let go of fear, and to embrace a life lived in faith, with others at my side.”
― Patrick Gray, I'll Push You: A Journey of 500 Miles, Two Best Friends, and One Wheelchair

“When I choose pride over vulnerability, I find that relying on my own strength makes me weak.”
― Patrick Gray, I'll Push You: A Journey of 500 Miles, Two Best Friends, and One Wheelchair

“Christopher Burney, the British officer who was held in Buchenwald and other German prison camps, was kept in solitary confinement for years during World War II. At first, he told himself he’d be out by Christmas. When Christmas passed, he hoped to be released by Easter. When that, too, passed and summer came, “I dismissed my old impatience from my mind,” he wrote in Solitary Confinement, “seeing such promise in the summer weather that no reservation, with its hidden pessimism, was now necessary…I could be patient for three more months.” That is the way a survivor thinks. When I was working in maximum-security prisons in the early 1980s, I remember one convict telling me, “I could do a nickel standing on my head.” When I asked how he did it, he said, “You got to stay inside yo’ mine.” That’s survivor thinking.”
― Laurence Gonzales, Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why