When Team McManus trained for the 2009 Boston Marathon we were sent so many signs with finding money during our training. I was waiting for my daughter to get off the train at Cleveland Circle one day and walked back and forth to stretch my legs. On the wall of the Citi Bank branch there was a pile of change. There was no one around to ask if the money belonged to them. We had lunch and when we came out the money was still there so I brought it home. As we sorted the pennies, nickels and dimes, they sorted out according to the mileage for our upcoming training runs.
One of my favorite memories that is chronicled in my memoir, "Coming Home: A Memoir of Healing, Hope and Possibility":
As we were heading out along Beacon Street here in Brookline, Mass., I saw a penny. Those of you who have read my blog know that we have had a lot of signs with finding money while we trained. There were a herd of runners behind us and I knew that if I stopped to pick this penny up, I could get trampled and then where would I be after a year of training and being on the threshold of running the Marathon. So I felt God's Presence and ran on. While on Heartbreak Hill, my daughter stopped in her tracks. Buried in the crack in the sidewalk on Heartbreak Hill, my daughter spotted a quarter - not just any quarter but a quarter dedicated to Helen Keller. Her quotes and life story have always been a major source of inspiration to me and Bernie Siegel, MD (who through the years has been a guiding healing light for me) has quoted her so many times in his talks, books and on his forum. During the last two miles of our training run, we found two more pennies - 27 cents! Not 26 but 27 so God is letting us know that we have what we need to go the distance....
My dear friend, healer and chosen dad Bernie Siegel, MD who was so supportive of my 2009 Boston Marathon run in the wake of the diagnosis of Post Polio Syndrome a progressive neuromuscular disease by Western Medicine Standards told me to look for the penny at the start....You'll know that I and God are with you! Well at a little past the halfway mark in Wellesley, I found "the penny!" It gave me that extra push to get through Heartbreak Hill and get to the finish line!
Last year I found a series of dimes.
FDR's image, the words Liberty and In God We Trust are on the dime; a reminder to trust in my healing journey and to stay focused on my freedom and liberation from the effects of paralytic polio and trauma. FDR's wife Eleanor Roosevelt's quotes are inspiring!
The other day our daughter Ruth Anne who ran the 2009 Boston Marathon with us, found a quarter. She knew that she needed to keep her eyes open for a penny...a sign that once again Team McManus would go the distance together. Even though we are running the Bermuda Half Marathon (notice I deliberately did not say "only" the half marathon), we were ecstatic when she did, indeed, find the penny!
This is the beginning of a new journey for Team McManus as we train for the Bermuda Half Marathon and travel together as a Team to that beautiful Island in January.
Tomorrow we run another 5.5 miles. We are slowly building our miles with patience, trust and faith. I can do a threepeat of the Bermuda Half Marathon even though I have never run 3 consecutive half marathons in my life! I draw strength and confidence from the signs that surround! We are once again being showered by Grace and abundance on our journey's way.
Go the distance with strength and courage!
~Mary
Be sure to visit my website by following this link.
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):
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