When I think about how I felt 10 years ago sitting on my lawn wearing a short toe up leg brace, clutching a manuscript for "New World Greetings:Inspirational Poetry and Musings for a New World," and wondering what had I just done, leaving my 20 year award winning VA social work career to heal my life, I reflect on the miracle of healing that has happened in my life!
I had no idea that I would become a runner and now, I am getting ready to train for my third CONSECUTIVE Bermuda Half Marathon.
What better way to celebrate 10 years of healing than by registering for the race and booking flights and hotel.
I wasn't planning on running another Bermuda Half Marathon but am so blessed and grateful that Race Director Anthony Raynor gave Team McManus an invitational entry to the race!
A week before I left my job, much to the chagrin of my Team at the VA who expressed their fear and trepidation for me that I was retiring 3 years shy of when I was eligible to retire virtually without a plan, they gave me a retirement party.
It was in part a celebration of my years of dedication to serving the veterans and their families but there was an air of tension and a fear that I'd gone mad leaving my job to become a poet and heal my life.
What an incredible journey it has been.
The traction that I needed to heal the effects of having contracted paralytic polio at age 5 and severe childhood trauma came two years ago. I was so blessed to meet Dr. Ryan J. Means, my Hero Healer. He turned me onto the work of Dr. Joe Dispenza who has been my beacon of hope during these past two years conditioning my body to a new mind!
It's been a day of reflection on the miracle of my healing and celebrating where I am today.
I saw my Bermudian friends' Facebook photos from yesterday's Bermuda Day celebration.
I'm a part of the International Running Community and enjoying a life that all began in my imagination.
It's a journey of courage, of strength, of fiery determination and never giving up. It's a message of healing and hope and possibility and letting everyone know that no matter the circumstances we can always find a way to go the distance!
To going the distance with strength and courage!
~Mary
My books are available on Amazon.
Feel the Heal: An Anthology of Poems to Heal Your Life
Coming Home: A Memoir of Healing Hope and Possibility that chronicles the first 7 years of my healing journey:
And my latest and greatest book - Going the Distance: The Power of Endurance (With a Foreword by Jacqueline Hansen):
Mary McManus, MSW knew challenges since she was five years old beginning with contracting polio followed by enduring nine years of violence at the hands of family members. Those early challenges prepared her for taking on the challenge of the diagnosis of post polio syndrome, a progressive neuromuscular disease in December 2006 when she was at the height of her award winning career as a social worker at the Department of Veterans Affairs. Asking for Divine Guidance as she had throughout her trials and tribulations, she discovered the gift of poetry in her soul. Her first poem, “Running the Race,” foreshadowed her 2009 Boston Marathon run. “Going the Distance: The Power of Endurance,” chronicles Mary’s journey as a survivor of paralytic polio and trauma, as a runner and a woman who refused to quit. Eight years after her diagnosis, she was finally led to two healers, a chiropractor and a muscular therapist, who helped her reclaim her life and go the distance, a woman transformed who embodies the power of endurance.
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