We had a very difficult and challenging weekend. Our daughter was suffering and struggling with her symptoms of severe depression and PTSD and all that goes along with it. She had been discharged the previous Wednesday without a discharge plan! Fortunately she put together her own plan with the help and support of a wonderful social worker through the Brookline Police Department. The Women's Partial Hospitalization program has an incredibly caring and talented staff of professionals including a psychiatrist who added a new medication to her regimen and is closely monitoring her at the program but as I said, the weekend was incredibly difficult and challenging.
Tom and I managed to get in our run and pool time adhering to our health and fitness regimen and making sure we practiced impeccable self care. We were so grateful when Monday came and she could return to the structure of a day program.
We got up early as is our usual Monday morning routine. We took time to meditate, do our core workout, have a banana and water and go on our 5K run.
It was a glorious sunrise:
We passed an older gentleman who we have seen walking around the Reservoir. He was running on Monday morning. We smiled and gave a little salute as we passed each other.
We saw another runner who we have seen during our early morning runs and shouted out a good morning to you which he echoed back to us.
As we rounded our first lap around the Reservoir, a dark cloud appeared and it started raining.
Fortunately the air was relatively warm for a December day in Boston.
The shower didn't last long and as we were about to start our 2nd lap I just happened to look up in the sky. There was a rainbow!
It appeared at first as a quarter of a rainbow with pale hues. It grew brighter and we all stopped in our tracks in awe to watch its appearance grow and glow across the sky.
I sobbed and could no longer see through my raindrop and tear stained glasses. I took off my glasses and we continued our run under the rainbow.
I didn't pay attention to our pace but we did serious negative splits. As we passed the two other runners who were now running in the opposite direction from us. We were still smiling and murmuring about how in awe we were of the rainbow connection we made.
The older gentleman commented, "You realize of course that if we would not have gotten up early on this Monday morning, we never would have seen this magnificent sight."
I paused and reflected on how much I would have missed had I not taken a leap of faith to heal my life after the diagnosis of Post-Polio Syndrome and followed the lead of the Divine to the sport of running.
To your health and wellness
From my heart to yours
Mary
My healing journey using the power of visualization is featured in David R. Hamilton's book, "How Your Mind Can Heal Your Body-Anniversary Edition." It's available 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***
The Adventures of Runnergirl 1953 takes you on Mary McManus’ healing odyssey from a wheelchair to the finish line of the 2009 Boston Marathon and beyond. After the diagnosis of Post-Polio Syndrome in December 2006, Mary got still and asked for Divine Guidance. She harnessed the power of her mind to heal her body, feverishly writing poetry in which she imagined herself healthy, whole and free from the shackles of her youth. Mary’s quest to heal her life led her to the sport of running that tested her mettle while fueling her journey of transformation from a survivor of childhood paralytic polio and severe trauma at the hands of family members to a woman who embodies faith, grace under fire, courage, determination, endurance and resilience. Running became a way of life for Mary. As you’ll discover in “The Adventures of Runnergirl 1953” nothing, not even a serious knee injury in December of 2014 could stop her on the roads or in her life. Mary’s story is one that will leave you cheering for the underdog and discovering the meaning of different ability as Mary overcame every challenge that life presented to her.
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