Celebrating Ten Years of Running: Joy to Realize I Could Live Life Anew

Before running there was poetry that fired up my imagination to experience a world beyond Post-Polio Syndrome, the effects of childhood paralytic polio and severe trauma. The first poem I wrote in February 2007 was called, "Running the Race."

Here's an excerpt:
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.

My heart was warmed and I was so grateful for the responses to yesterday's blog post, "Celebrating Ten Years of Running: On Turtles and the View From The Back of the Pack." Denise Holbert-McMillan, one of my dear running friends who I met through serendipity in Bermuda 2016, posted this on Facebook:

Love this, Mary. Know who else has joy in limitations? E. I was watching her run after the ball with absolute abandon, slower, but with sheer exuberance. She stops when she has to, lifts her paw a little, sometimes just sits. It used to make me sad for her wondering if this is it. But one day I just realized she was enjoying her favorite activity without a care about what she had before or what may come down the pike. TODAY was what she was working with, just like the rest of us.

along with this photo of her beautiful dog Ellie:



When I was "given" the diagnosis of Post-Polio Syndrome, a progressive neuromuscular disease in December of 2006, my life came to a screeching halt. I was told I needed to quit my award winning VA social work career if I wanted to "halt the symptoms where they were" and faced a grim future according to Western Medicine standards.

I refused to take the diagnosis sitting down and, instead of making lemonade, I went out and ran the 2009 Boston Marathon as a mobility impaired runner raising over $10,535 for Spaulding Rehab Hospital where I took the first steps on my healing journey.

I took a leap of faith and left my award winning career to heal my life although at the time I had no idea what that meant.

I felt deep in my soul, that despite the precarious situation I was in at the time, I could find a way to find joy and live life anew. At the time, using a leg brace and a cane for mobility and using a wheelchair at times to get around, I didn't know that I would celebrate 10 years of running. I opened my mind to possibility and my heart to gratitude. No matter what circumstances life may throw our way there is joy to realize we can always find a way to live life anew.

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 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):