When humans experience trauma, a natural response is to avoid the source of it. But, perhaps, if you are an extraordinary individual, you might embrace the trauma for the lessons and silver linings that it can teach. One cold winter morning in the still-darkness of rural Illinois, then 17-year-old artist Andy Mast, son of Amish parents, went out to the barn to let his horse out to pasture. When he did not return to the house in a reasonable amount of time, his father went out to find him unconscious atop their mangled metal gate, his horse standing over him. He doesn’t know for sure what happened, but the horse spooked somehow, unintentionally causing a blow to Mast’s head. Rushed to a hospital, he remained…
