Celebrating Independence Day!

Every year on July 4th, America celebrates its Independence. It's a wonderful time to pause and reflect on the meaning of independence and freedom in our lives.

As a survivor of paralytic polio and severe childhood trauma, my freedom is dear and precious to me. During the summer of 1971, my mother and I were held hostage in our home by my father's alcoholic rages. Even though my parents were separated, he would stalk us in the evening. By 5pm we had to be in the house with the curtains and blinds closed. I pleaded with my mother to not let him in the house but she was strung out on narcotic pain medication and would let him in. On August 1, he ended his life.

Ten years ago I was diagnosed with Post-Polio Syndrome, a progressive neuromuscular disease. I was told to prepare to spend the rest of my life confined to a wheelchair.

It would be easy to feel trapped and confined by circumstances, by a sense of outrage, harbor a sense of victimization and have chosen a very different path than the path of liberation I choose to live.

Like Forrest Gump, I've learned to break free from the shackles - both literal and metaphorical of my past and like Forrest Gump, running set me free!

Today Team McManus went on a 5K run on our road to the Bermuda Marathon Weekend. I know how blessed I am to have the gift of running in my life! I know how blessed I am to celebrate my independence and freedom from some of the most horrific circumstances any human being should have to face.



Today I am celebrating Independence Day with my beautiful family through the gift of running and the gift of quality time together.

Let freedom ring!

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):

My Running Chonicles:Freedom

I have experienced phantom leg pains in my left leg for as long as I could remember as a result of paralytic polio followed by repeated child sexual assault and then 5 major orthopedic surgeries.. I had learned to not focus on them and to certainly not turn up the volume when they happened.

During Saturday's training run, my mind was working through a lot of what came to the surface. Interestingly enough, when I hit the ground, something broke free within me and in my left leg. My first thought was, "Okay Universe do we really need to make it this dramatic and intense?" But then I knew in an instant the energetic connection to my past was severed!

I have had to work so hard to overcome all the challenges of the experiences of my past and my therapy, my medicine and my path to feeling free has been and continues to be through running. Yet I had repeatedly hit a wall in my running that I finally have been able to move beyond since being blessed by Dr. Ryan J. Means, a healer chiropractor who gave me so many tools to use to experience freedom, ease, strength and confidence in my body.

After a few days of wrestling with unfinished business from the past, taking a tumble on the pavement, getting up and running another 1.5 miles to complete our 6.5 mile training run for the Bermuda Half Marathon, I feel unbridled freedom and now know in every fiber of my being that I am ready to go the distance this time!

The Thoroughbred

A dark horse
dark past
finishing last
ready to quit
battered and bruised
a foal fouled
yet Spirit unbroken
a thoroughbred deep inside
despite appearances
all she needed was a chance
someone to believe in her
a horse whisperer
in the mist
amidst fog and foliage
she runs
breaking free
transformed
into the champion she was always meant to be.

From "Feel the Heal: An Anthology of Poems to Heal Your Life" available along with all of my books on Amazon.