Light or Darkness. Which should you choose when all else is lost?

When you fall to the earth and darkness closes in. When the light of hope begins to dim. Hold tight to your beliefs. And one day, you will soar again.


It was warm that evening. It was just about midnight. Seething with self-disgust and emotional turmoil, I sat on the edge of my bed and rocked back and forth in silent agony. As the minutes ticked by, my distress increased, almost to the point of hysteria. I just couldn’t ‘take it’ anymore! With a heart-wrenching sob, I suddenly sprang to my feet, grabbed my car keys and ran down the stairs to get my car. Pealing out of the driveway, I raced off towards the nearby mountain highway.

With tears streaming down my face and my throat tight with constriction, I forced the accelerator down further and the car slid screeching around the mountain turn in the ‘inky’ blackness of the night. With my face rigid with anger and self-loathing, I braced my hands on the wheel as I fish-tailed out of the curve and head down the last straight-a-way, and towards the death-defying hair-pin turn 500 yards ahead of me. I cleared the last stand of tall pine trees and raced into the night sky.

It was then that I was suddenly hit with the most beautiful, panoramic view of twinkling stars on the beckoning horizon. Still on ‘auto-pilot,’ I punched the accelerator all the way to the floor. Suddenly, my brain flashed back to childhood and to the many nights I gazed in hope at the stars in the night sky.

One image from the past, stormed into my mind with the impact of thunder. It was early evening when I saw that single star. The evening when I made a wish. I was only six years old. But that simple wish gave me the hope and courage to walk into the following years with a tiny spark of hope.

“What happened to me!” I shouted in rage. “I don’t believe!” “I don’t believe!” “I….”

My thoughts and speech were suddenly blocked by a single booming phrase that thundered through my mind, “Be not afraid!” My mind cleared. One thousand one, one thousand two…I switched my foot over to slam on the brake.

As the tires screeched eerily on the dark pavement, my car slid at frightening speed, straight toward the flashing yellow guard rail. It was a flimsy barrier overlooking a vertical drop off of thousands of feet of solid rock. “Too late,” I hissed to myself…


That one moment in time, changed my life forever.

by dana hee,
Olympic Gold Medalist, Award-Winning Stuntwoman, Motivational Speaker, Life Survivalist

cc: dana hee, Jan 2010

Video: "Celebrating The Star Within Me" A slideshow of Dana from 'ground zero' to 'zero fear.' http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3reVS9ztS8