Unity is strength... when there is teamwork and collaboration, wonderful things can be achieved.
Mattie Stepanek
Sunset is still my favorite color, and rainbow is second.
Even though the future seems far away, it is actually beginning right now.
Remember to play after every storm.
Keep all special thoughts and memories for lifetimes to come. Share these keepsakes with others to inspire hope and build from the past, which can bridge to the future.
We're divorced from my father because he did some mean and scary things to us.
Sad things happen. They do. But we don't need to live sad forever.
We all have life storms, and when we get the rough times and we recover from them, we should celebrate that we got through it. No matter how bad it may seem, there's always something beautiful that you can find.
It doesn't matter how you pray. Just pray. All religions are beautiful and they all have one common belief. There's something bigger and greater than us that can give us and take from us life. It is better than the here and now.
While we are living in the present, we must celebrate life every day, knowing that we are becoming history with every work, every action, every deed.
I never question God. Sometimes I say, 'Why me? Why do I have such a hard life? Why do I have this disease? Why do I have siblings who died?' But then I think and say, 'Why not me?'
People are fighting over how our heartsongs are different. But they don't need to be the same. That's the beauty. We are a mosaic of gifts. Each of us has our inner beauty no matter how we look.
If it came to a magic genie, I would ask him for two extra wishes. One would be that no one would have to live with the muscular dystrophy disease or any disease. And the second one would be world peace, that we just stop fighting, talk about things, and we could live in harmony once again, like God intended us to do.
Remember to look at your glass half full and not half empty. A lot of my strength comes from God. God has given me a gift - the gift of life - and it's amazing that I live each day.
I think that someone is watching out for me, God, my guardian angel, I'm not sure who that is, but they really work hard.
Poetry is a beautiful way of expressing feelings - happy, sad, angry, caring. It's also a way that we share with other people, to help them with those feelings.
I write to express my thoughts, my feelings. I want people to think.
My life mission is to spread peace to the world.
I would not have lasted a minute, literally a minute, on this Earth without God and angels by my side, because I was born. And right as I was born, I went into a respiratory arrest. So, big things that keep me going are friends and family, God. And another thing is looking forward to what's going to happen tomorrow.
You can't lie down in the ashes of another person's life.
Wars should be fought with words, not bombs, not weapons. And calm words. I think that wars should be fought over a chessboard and a cup of something to drink.
Sometimes my body wakes me up and says 'Hey, you haven't had pain in a while. How about pain?' And sometimes I can't breathe, and that's hard to live with. But I still celebrate life and don't give up.
The way of life is not as easy as some people think... like me.
I feel that God has given me a very special opportunity that I should not let go to waste. I use the gift he has given me.
A heartsong doesn't have to be a song in your heart. It doesn't have to be talking about love and peace. It can just be your message. It can be your feeling. Some people might even call it a conscience, even though that's not really what it is. It's your message, what you feel like you need to do.
I want to be remembered as a poet, a peacemaker, and a philosopher who played.
I do fear death. But what I actually fear is not dying. I mean, true, it will be sad. But I know that there is a better place waiting for me.
Maybe I wanted to have kids because you want to leave behind lessons, leave behind everything that matters to you. That's how you touch the world. But I have to reconsider what it's like to leave a legacy.
Every year, once a year, in Maryland, I go for a week and overnight camp with about 50 to 60 kids with muscular dystrophy, all ages, seven to 21. And it is really fun. I have some great friends there and wonderful counselors.
I've gotten books published. I've met famous people that are very nice. I look back and I say, 'Wow. Thank you, God, for giving me this gift. And thank you for helping me to keep going.'
The doctor said, 'He can't last a week.' And I did. And they said, 'There's no way this kid's going to last a month.' And I did. And so they said, 'Two years. He's not going to make it.' Two years. 'Five years. He can't do that.' I lived to be five years. 'He's never going to hit double digits.' And here I am, a new teenager.
Expressing my feelings and then the opportunity to share it with others is just such a gift.
There can be many different views of what Heaven is like, because Heaven is whatever makes each person eternally and fully happy.
You know, it's kind of hard because I really - I see kids on their Rollerblades and their bikes, and just running around, climbing trees, and I used to do that. And I loved doing that.
God gives me hope that there is something greater than us, something better and bigger than the here and now, that can help us live.
People will come up to me everywhere and say, 'Ah, I saw you on 'Larry King,' and, 'Ah, I saw you on 'Oprah.' And it's really nice, and a lot of people say, 'Is it a pain?' And I say 'No.' And it's not annoying.
I think I may have to grow up without growing old. I think we're going to have to define differently what I'm going to be. We're going to have to define my growing up differently.
I want to keep publishing books, and writing and spreading my heartsong through the world.
My disease is a very rare form of muscular dystrophy, called disautonomic mitochondrial myopathy.
