On July 22. 2018, an ordinary summer's evening, Danielle Kane was celebrating a friend's birthday in one of the restaurants in Toronto's popular Greek Town. She hasn't gone home since. When she stepped outside to investigate what sounded like fireworks, she looked an ordinary looking stranger in the eye. Then he fired a gun at her. The bullet went through her spinal cord and stomach. Danielle was rushed to the hospital. Now, seven weeks later, she faces two more months of fulltime rehabilitation before finding a new, wheelchair-accessible apartment to go home to while facing a radically changed life. Danielle does not know if she will ever walk again. Yet, she is not bitter. How has she accepted this dramatic, unexpected event in her life, which many would call tragic?
First, Danielle empathises with the shooter. While we do not know Faisal Hussain's motive — he took it to the grave with him when he killed himself during a police confrontation after the shooting spree — his family shared that he suffered from mental illness and depression. Danielle imagines he was a very troubled man, feeling isolated with no where to go. Having faced depression herself, she understands facing dark times when you don't know how to heal, and feel life can spiral out of control. She doesn't take the violence personally; it was an accident of circumstance.
“Nothing has been guaranteed to us. So I'm trying to look at things in a more positive way and be grateful for each new sunrise, and the little gains I make in physio, and each day I get to spend with my loved ones, because that's what matters.” — Danielle Kane
When she looks forward to her life, which she envisioned as active and full of service through a career in nursing, she chooses to embrace her new reality with acceptance and courage, even if it's through tears. "It's not just a mask I'm wearing or anything....I've already suffered enough. I've suffered a lot. You know, why make things worse by deciding to be unhappy and deciding to feel like I'm cheated out of a life, like this other kind of life, like an able-bodied person's life. I mean I'm not. Nothing has been guaranteed to us. So I'm trying to look at things in a more positive way and be grateful for each new sunrise, and the little gains I make in physio, and each day I get to spend with my loved ones, because that's what matters," Danielle explains passionately.
Peace does not depend on circumstances; it depends on accepting one's circumstances.
Peace doesn't mean erasing the effects of violence; it means erasing the hatred from your heart so it doesn't steal your future joy.
Peace is not the unfolding of our lives according to our plans; it's enfolding whatever life brings into the lessons which help us grow.
Danielle demonstrates well that peace does not depend on circumstances; it depends on accepting one's circumstances. Peace doesn't mean erasing the effects of violence; it means erasing the hatred from your heart so it doesn't steal your future joy. Peace is not the unfolding of our lives according to our plans; it's enfolding what life brings into the lessons that help us grow.
I am confident that Danielle's future will be active and full of service, perhaps even more profound service than she anticipated before this happened — inspiring us to embrace the challenges, and even the enemies, that we face, looking them directly in the eye then accepting them with empathy — including at our own, perhaps marred, image in the mirror.
Danielle Kane inspires us to embrace the challenges, and even the enemies, that we face, look them directly in the eye, then accept them with empathy — including at our own, perhaps marred, image in the mirror.
She supports Mayor Tory's motion to ban handgun and ammunition sales in Toronto. The motion depends on the federal and provincial governments to put them into effect.
Related links:
Although the shooting wasn't an act of terrorism, these stories and resources can inform our response to violence, no matter what its motive:
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