At this time of year, I always like to remember the good times, the good things, I am fortunate to experience and have. Although I've had some bumps along the way to get where I am today, I am able to nod at my life and think back with gratitude.

If you could nod with approval at your life—though there have been ups and downs, with downs so overwhelming at times—then you would be able to move forward with life and be grateful of life; you would be happy with your life.

I have mentioned that gratitude is the most important element you need to have in order to live a happy life and to overcome negativity. You not only should be grateful of things you have right now but of the things you had the privilege to have in the past. One other gratitude is being grateful of even the negativity in your life. This is the kind that can help you climb high mountains and cross deep oceans.

There are almost always positive sides to any negative situation. I know it can be so hard to find the light amid the darkness, but there usually is. Yes, I also know that the positive side to a negative situation will not show up till some time has passed.

To give you an example of positivity in negativity, below is my own list...some of the positive sides I realize only until some time has passed.

1. Physical pain:
It allows me to sympathize with those who experience physical pain. I believe that one has to taste the ordeal to truly understand what it is like and to have full sympathy for those who have experienced it. When you can see or hear and you say to a blind or deaf person, "Oh, I know how you feel," that would not be true. You could not really know how it feels without going through blindness or deafness yourself. Just because you fumbled around the room in darkness does not mean that you have experienced blindness.

2. The fright of nearly losing my mother twice during the custody cases:
Because of the horror and injustice both my mother and I had experienced in the American medical system, I have become an advocate of parental rights in children's medical care to help today's loving parents protect and keep custody of their children, so they would not experience the horror we had gone through. When doctors ask yes or no, parents should have the right to say no.

3. Having asthma attacks:
It strengthened my faith in God. When I was having an attack at age fourteen, I was running out of ways of relief; none of my emergency-room visits could help. My mother then prayed to God with all her heart and soul, and instantly, the name, Medicus, a medical center for emergency visits popped into her head. I received immediate relief from there.

4. Being mistreated by one-on-one aides when I attended school:
I have become an advocate of aide/caregiver monitoring and screening for students with special needs and the disabled people in general.

5. Staying in hospitals:
The hospital stays in China had been quite beneficial, as my life was saved a few times, and I was able to walk for a full year at age four while receiving effective shots combined with massage therapy.

6. Losing my eyesight:
Then becoming an author, motivational speaker, self-empowerment expert, and advocate! Need I say more?

7. Insomnia:
When great ideas for my writing come to me.

So, yes, you would have to look at your situation from every single nook and cranny to find the light...with plenty of openness in your heart, mind, and soul.

This is one of the ways how I am able to be so grateful and so joyously alive.

In this issue, I would also like to briefly mention a significant date in my life: December 12, 1990. It was the day my mother Juliet Cheng won her second custody case against the doctor in Connecticut, thus she regained the right to be my own mother, and as a result, I did not receive the unwanted and harmful treatment that could have sent me to my grave, or worse yet, paralyze me. To read more about this case, visit my site http://www.shirleycheng.com (go to Parental Rights Advocacy at the top of the site) Better yet, pick up a copy of my autobiography! I'm having a new edition out in early 2008. Check out the new cover design at my site—it's under "Coming Soon..." You will save $12 if you pre-order it right now!

Lastly, I would like to feature a five-star review I recently received for my upcoming release Embrace Ultra-Ability! Wisdom, Insight & Motivation from the Blind Who Sees Far and Wide. I call it a five-star review because it's the perfect rating the reviewer M. Wayne Cunningham gave my book, and it is the rating I give his very well-written review (trust me, it means big when I give out five stars). I was—and still am—thrilled when I received five stars; the review is from quite a prestigious source.

Review:

If there is ever to be a poster person for people with ultra-abilities, it would have to be twenty-four-year-old Shirley Cheng. The author has turned her disabilities into an ultra-ability and written the awe-inspiring Embrace Ultra-Ability! Cheng's slim but power-packed motivational guide delivers what it promises with its wisdom, insights, and motivation. It is a volume to be read, re-read, and treasured for its originality, readability, and courageous approach to dealing with life's adversities, and from an individual who has had far more than her fair share of them.

Cheng is a first-class role model for taking the cards one is dealt in life and turning them into a winning hand. With clinical objectivity and without a sniffle of self-pity she describes the setbacks she suffered at eleven months of age when she contracted severe juvenile rheumatoid arthritis and later when she became fully blind at age seventeen. The story of how she overcame these disabilities as well as several misdiagnoses by medical practitioners, other attempts by legal authorities to rip her from her single mother's custody, and a delayed start in her formal education, is an inspiration for all readers—sighted, blind, abled or ultra-abled. Among Cheng's achievements are several books she has authored, edited, and designed, including a work co-authored with self-help icons such as Wayne Dyer, Tony Robbins, and Brian Tracy. She also does motivational tours and runs her own Web site.

Cheng's basic philosophy is, "If I have succeeded, so can you." She lays out in detail the guidelines to follow and the criteria to observe to obtain spiritual fulfillment, happiness, love, and respect, among other benefits. She stresses, however, that it is the reader who must take ultimate responsibility for his or her own physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual well-being. With typical humility she refers to her volume as only a basic guidebook. But it is a guidebook full of sage advice, helpful exercises, common sense analyses, and tough love prescriptions in chapters such as, "Go For Your Gold Medals in Life," memorable anecdotes from her life experiences, and two more detailed stories, one about her own birth, the other about her mother's custody battle to keep her, that are gems of classic storytelling. The latter is also frightening because of what could have happened if Mrs. Cheng had not been able to stave off the misdiagnosed medical procedures with which her daughter was threatened. It seems that bravery and persistence are common threads with the Cheng women.

The author's attitude toward life's obstacles is perhaps best summed up in the following quotation from her chapter, "Always a Tomorrow," about everyone's need for hope. It is a mantra well suited for others to follow too: "No mountain is high enough to hold me back; no wind is strong enough to blow me down. There are stars I must reach; there are roads I must take, and with my blooming hope inside, I spread my wings wide to embrace all that tomorrow will bring."
—M. Wayne Cunningham
ForeWord CLARION Reviews

Want an autographed copy of "Embrace Ultra-Ability!"? Want to save $2? Then get a copy at http://www.shirleycheng.com before the offer ends in January, when it'll be released!

Other than that, I do not have much to update on, as I have not had an engagement since July. I'm taking a vacation from public appearances to primarily focus on my book projects—I like to call them my book babies. I will have four books out in 2008, so I have plenty to do now.

Have a wonderful and blessed holiday season and a very happy New Year! Remember that light is there for the good; you'll just have to open your heart and above all, be patient. God rewards those who He sees are good.

Shirley Cheng, www.ShirleyCheng.com