From the Foreword of Going the Distance: The Power of Endurance by Jacqueline Hansen:
Try to imagine what it must have been like to be diagnosed with paralytic polio as a child. Try to imagine suffering child abuse at the hands of those very family members who are charged with your upbringing. Try to imagine them together. It’s unbearable to think about. Then imagine surviving the unthinkable, and in adulthood being diagnosed with Post-Polio Syndrome. This is a story that needs to be told. This is a story of challenge, of resiliency, and a story of heart, tremendous heart.
Shortly after the diagnosis of Post-Polio Syndrome, in February of 2007, I got still and asked for Divine Guidance. I imagined a life very different from my past and very different from the one the doctors predicted for me. My pen became my divining rod for healing as poetry poured out of my soul. My first poem? "Running the Race" that foreshadowed my 2009 Boston Marathon run and opened the portal to healing.
I watched Forrest Gump's Run Forrest Run scene over and over again imagining myself running free.
Mirror neurons are fired up when we watch somebody do something. Our muscles and neurological connections fire up as if we were doing the very action we are watching!
On Saturday's run, after I slogged through the first mile, I thought about a video that my friend's husband posted on YouTube tracking Kathleen Horgan's triathlon training. Coincidentally, the staging was set up for Sunday's Boston Triathlon that Kathleen was racing.
"Whatever it takes
cuz I love how it feels when I break the chains!"
As far as I have come on my journey healing the effects of paralytic polio and trauma, I still have to be vigilant about not going back into old feelings in my body. It takes both consistent mental and physical training.
I imagined myself out on a run with Kathleen and I transcended any limits I was feeling in my body. Kathleen is poetry in motion! We did crazy negative splits and a pace for the last mile that I haven't seen in a year. I'm recovering from 3 Bermuda Half Marathons in as many years and after a hip/groin/back injury it's a new starting line with working on my pace.
Starting lines are awesome. There awaits unlimited possibility at a new starting line.
Before Saturday I was still in recovery mode after crossing the finish line of the 2018 Bermuda Half Marathon.
On Saturday I crossed a new starting line and I can just imagine what's next!
From my heart to yours,
To your health and wellness,
Mary
My healing journey is going to be featured in David R. Hamilton's soon to be released book, "How Your Mind Can Heal Your Body." It's available for pre-order on Amazon.
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:
Going the Distance: The Power of Endurance (With a Foreword by Jacqueline Hansen):
Coming soon *** The Adventures of Runnergirl 1953 ****
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