Running the Race

Happy April everybody! Happy Spring! Happy Easter and Passover -- a time of resurrection, of hope, of new life, of light and renewal. April is also National Poetry Month!

After the diagnosis of Post-Polio Syndrome which Western Medicine believed to be a progressive neuromuscular disease, I got still and asked for Divine Guidance. It was February of 2007 in the darkest days of winter and the dark night of my mind, body and soul. I was told to be prepared to spend the rest of my life in a wheelchair and was given the warning, "If you use it, you will lose it." At first I adhered to the advice admonishment of the team at the International Rehab Center for Polio and Post-Polio. Their intentions were good but their information was severely limited.

I got still and asked for Divine Guidance.

What was I going to do? I was told I should quit my award winning career as a VA social worker. I had only 3 years to go until I reached retirement age. I sat at my dining room table surrounded by information I printed out from various teachers including my beloved Bernie Siegel. Bernie as he likes to be called had been my coach through many rebirthings as I recovered from different illnesses and physical challenges. He wrote about the importance of gratitude and creativity in healing one's life.


Another one of the printouts was about gratitude. It had affirmations on it. "I am so happy and grateful now that I can create."

"Create? Create what? I had grown children and my social work career was coming to an end. Hell my life may be coming to an end."

And then the next thing I knew I felt a stirring in my soul.

I grabbed a piece of paper and a pen and this poem flowed out of me:

Running the Race
Early summer 1959 my kindergarten year
everyone around me filled with nervous fear
despite the Salk vaccine hope polio would disappear
the polio virus crept right up and knocked me in the rear.

Dancing all around the gym feeling free just like a bird
I dropped to the ground just like a stone and no one said a word.
The pain it was so searing-the diagnosis even worse
"It's polio" the doctor said...he was abrupt and terse.

Called one of the 'lucky ones' I had a 'mild case'
but with the other athletes I could never keep their pace.
Miss Holly physical therapist, curly hair and a warm, broad smile
it tempered the pain of being apart - to walk I'd take awhile.

I always wore those 'special' shoes the kids they poked and teased
With no support and much abuse with childhood I wasn't pleased.
But put nose to the grindstone and learned all that I could
I couldn't kick a ball but my grades were always good.

Years went by and no more thought to polio did I give
I accepted the limp and everything else and decided my life I would live.
But symptoms of weakness and muscle pain did grow
I kept a stoic face hoping no one else would know.

Life no longer was my own I struggled through each day
Suffered in silence, isolated from friends- trying to keep depression at bay.
And with the grace of glorious God my world it opened wide
I discovered there was a Post Polio team and they were on my side.

Using wheelchair to travel, set limits on what I could do,
resulted in joy to realize I could live life anew.
Celebrated my body- creaks, groans and need for a brace
While in my mind I focused on winning a 10K race.

Sought out paths for healing and my spirit flew free
for the first time in life, I could truly be me.
The chains are gone and possibilities abound
I'm a tree with my roots planted firmly in ground.

I'm now off the sidelines, no need to sit and whine
So much gratitude fills my heart and love and beauty shine.
After all these years I can join the loving human race
I exceed all expectations and now I set the pace.

This poem foreshadowed my 2009 Boston Marathon run:


and opened the door to my future of health, wholeness, wellness and healing created by my imagination through my pen, my divining rod for healing as I came to call it. I was in a leg brace, using a cane and at times a wheelchair for mobility yet in my imagination I had no bounds. I wrote poetry in the cadence of Dr. Seuss. Why Dr. Seuss you might ask? My physical therapist, Miss Holly, read Dr. Seuss to me before every painful physical therapy session when I was recovering from paralytic polio at the age of 5 and then had me recite Dr. Seuss back to her in tandem during the treatments.

Hundreds and hundreds of poems flowed out of me during these past 11 years as I did, in fact, leave my award winning social work career to heal my life taking a leap of faith into the unknown.

Each poem was a healing creation inspiring my mind, body and soul to heal from the effects of paralytic polio and childhood trauma.

This month I will be bringing you selections from Feel the Heal: An Anthology of Poems to Heal Your Life


Through the power of my imagination I was transformed from a survivor of paralytic polio destined to live the rest of my life in a wheelchair to a runner and a woman who inspires thousands with a message of healing, hope and possibility.

To your health and wellness
From my heart to yours,
Mary

Proud to be a part of Friends of Blue Diamond Athletic Displays, Inc. Be sure to visit us at Booth 758 during Boston Marathon Weekend.

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):