Readers’ Digest did an interview with Terri and Bindi Irwin in the April 2008 issue, selected excepts:
RD: Have you found that a challenge over the past year?
Terri: How you perceive life is your personal choice. Life has challenges: sometimes everything goes beautifully and that’s wonderful, and sometimes it can be difficult, but it’s how you react to it. I’m working hard at making sure my family has a good, fulfilled life. I think if our roles had been reversed – if Steve was talking to you now and I was an angel watching over my children – I would want to see him being happy and having fun, and living and loving and laughing again. But I have to practise it – it doesn’t just come [to] me.
Sometimes I’ll wake up and don’t even want to get out of bed. But I get up and get dressed for my kids, for the people I work with, for the legacy that Steve’s left. And you can do it. You can get better at it the more you practise. Some days I’ll be standing in the shower at the end of the day and think, “You know, this shower feels really good and that’s going to be my thing today – I found something.”
RD: Do you trust animals or people more?
Terri: Steve said an interesting thing when it comes to trust. He said, “I don’t know why people don’t like crocodiles. They are very straightforward: if you get in close proximity to a crocodile, he’s always going to try to eat you.” Then he said, “With people, sometimes they pretend to be your friend first.” I find that so interesting.
RD: Do you think that you are a strong person?
Terri: My goal is to be a strong, capable person. For 14 years it was really motivating to try to keep up with Steve and now my motivation is [getting] people to keep up with me. So this next croc research trip, I want the guys to go, “Well, I’m tired but Terri’s still going, so I guess I’d better [go on].”
It puts things into context when you lose someone as close as Steve and I were. I realised that on one side it’s the hardest part of my life and on the other side, if I can do this I can do anything. A lot of times I’d say to Steve – because he was so incredibly strong – “I wish I could be as strong as you just for 24 hours.” He’d smile and say, “You know, there are different kinds of strength.” And I think about that all the time because sometimes emotionally I feel like I’m getting in the ring. I’m getting in the cage and I don’t know how long each round’s going to be.
And I don’t know how long I can stand up and fight. But I’m not going to throw in the towel; I’m at that point in my life where I just say, “Bring it on”.
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FOTS prayed together last night. It was a moment of encouragement, outpouring and much sharing. When we share about the many people we admire, the trend is persistent – they are people of resolute strength, capacity, disciplined, with deep emotional well and resilient.
Greatness is attainable.
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