Emilio had 8 cancers, one of them took his leg, but that didn’t stop him from living fully and to become one of the most famous and experienced cruising sailors in Rio Grande do Sul.
A story of overcoming impossible odds that teaches us how to deal with problems. Emilio is a real-life hero.
On the previous episode we left Porto Alegre and arrived in Tapes, Rio Grande do Sul. A small town by Lagoa dos Patos where we found incredible stories. One of them is about Emilio, for sure one of the most inspiring persons we ever met.
Some time ago, in a comment, someone asked if it would be possible to sail without a leg. Well... this episode has answers to many questions in life, not just this one. It is nice to observe that even the lack of a leg is not a barrier for incredible feats like sail around in a sailboat. Emilio managed to become not just a sailor, but one of the greatest and best known cruising sailor in the lake. Besides doing boat deliveries of sailboats and powerboats all over Brazil.
Sailing with Emilio is a lesson on how to face adversities. I watch my fears when facing my problems and suddenly they seem to be so much smaller than they were before. This is a sailing I will remember forever. And the loss of a leg is only one of the many problems he faces. Be beat cancer 8 times!
I couldn’t stop thinking I was in the presence of a hero. Sometimes life presents us complicated problems that may seem to not have any solution. It has happen to me and probably to you as well, but then you see something that changes the way you think.
In those waters you find beautiful places, beautiful shelters to anchor. Life is like that, more or less like the wind: It is not a variable you can control, what matters is how you position your sails and move forward.
If you can’t change such a difficult situation, change the way you see it. Don’t think the world limits you, as it is yourself driving your own frontiers.
To me Tapes was a great surprise. We loved being in a small country town. Tapes has just 16 thousand people, but it has 4 photos of sailboats on its Wikipedia page. That couldn’t go unnoticed. Besides having many sailboats here in town, Emilio believe the sailing culture here could be a lot better.
#overcoming #motivation