Countdown to Bermuda: How Lucky Could We Get?

Sunny and temperatures in the 50's on November 25th in New England. A few moments of headwind but overall it was perfect running weather for our 11.5 mile training run yesterday on the road to Bermuda Half Marathon III How lucky could we get?

Before we went on our run, I set my intention for our run. I found this image and quote that captured my heart and soul:



Team McManus often jokes about belonging to the church of the long run ... and it's true.

Going out on a picture perfect day in New England, unplugged with Tom and Ruth Anne by my side is a treat and a retreat.

We had the route well planned out. We parked at the Cleveland Circle Reservoir. When we arrived, Tom was going to park where we parked two weeks ago for our 11 mile run in the freezing temps. I asked him instead to park on the street where we parked on 12/25/15 when we did our last long run, 12.5 miles for Bermuda Half Marathon I.

Yesterday's run was reminiscent of that last training run on Christmas in 2015 with one very big distinction. Ruth Anne was with us yesterday after 3 years of her struggling with and suffering from severe depression and PTSD. How lucky could we get?

We did 2 loops around the Reservoir and then ran to the "small reservoir" aka Route 9 Reservoir near our house to do 3 loops around. We kept marveling at how warm the sun felt and talked about everything from the amazing Thanksgiving we celebrated this year - the first time in years that we were all together:


to mentally preparing for race weekend to music and current events to how we are going to celebrate Christmas and my birthday this year. How lucky could we get?

We returned to the Reservoir to finish our miles.

As we clicked off the miles, the sun shone brightly and stayed unseasonably warm. How lucky could we get?

Our fueling and hydration plan is set and held us in good stead through the 11.5 miles.

Team McManus is race ready with another 3 training runs to go to top off the tank. I've made my to do list of what we need to do to prepare for our racecation and a list for what we need to pack.

We have come so far since those early tentative training runs finding our rhythm and reconnecting with each other on the roads and in life. As we countdown to Bermuda and count the miles we ran in preparation for our Big Race, we counted our blessings.

How lucky can you get?


To going the distance with strength and courage
From my heart to yours,
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):

Thanksgiving - There is always something to be thankful for!

Facebook shared a memory of 5 years ago of a blog I wrote for one of my friends in cyberspace. Her blog is Life After 60 - Living Life with Joy.

The blog I wrote seems so appropriate for today when everyone seems to be struggling with what is happening around us. In honor of contributing to Joan Adam's blog, I wrote a poem for Thanksgiving and shared both the challenge of celebrating the holidays and finding a way to accentuate the positive:

Our guest poster today is my dear friend Mary McManus, creator of beautiful poetry and kind thoughts. Mary is always an inspiration. Thank you, Mary!

To keep the giving thanks in Thanksgiving this year, I came to the conclusion that every day is Thanksgiving. Holidays were always a very painful time in my life growing up. Alcoholism cast a long dark shadow over every day. Holidays meant more time being around family dysfunction.

My best friend came from a tightly knit Italian family and she would boast about the family traditions of making all the traditional Italian dishes. I had an us vs. them concept of the holidays. I was miserable while everyone else was joyful being with their beautiful, perfect families. Of course nothing could be further from the truth.

As I got older and had my own family, there was often an ache that there was no extended family with whom to share holidays. Slowly – very slowly – I learned that wanting what I did not have caused me a great deal of suffering. And so I shifted my focus to appreciation. Eventually, my heart healed through the power of forgiveness and a gratitude practice allowing me to experience the joys of the holidays.

This year I have so much to be grateful for. I am feeling healthier than I ever have in my life despite being 58 and ‘having’ the diagnosis of a progressive neurological disease, post polio syndrome. Although my husband and I are empty nesters, our relationship has grown closer together and we have interests we share and interests we pursue as individuals. I am surrounded with beautiful friends.

There have been tragic losses and other family crises which arose in this past year but it all depends on perspective and what we choose to focus on. We tend to build up expectations about what Thanksgiving and the holiday season should be or look like. Instead of having emotions build in anticipation of the ‘big day’, allow yourself to take time every day to have a practice of gratitude and focus on the blessings in your life. November 24th is just another day on the calendar but when you accentuate the positive every day is Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving

Make every day a feast of giving thanks

serving up heaping helpings of happiness, health and joy.

Be with the ones you love

—especially yourself

and feel your heart overflow

because there is so much gratitude stuffed inside.

Feast your eyes on the beauty and wonder that surrounds

Feed your heart on kindness and compassion

Forgive and remember love lasts

Laughter heals.

Taste the sweetness that life has to offer

breathe deeply

as the scents of the season

delight the senses.

This year I do have so much to be thankful for! I no longer live under the cloud of the toxic effects from having contracted paralytic polio followed by 9 years of trauma at the hands of family members. I am training for my 2nd CONSECUTIVE Bermuda Half Marathon. Every day in every way I heal on deeper and deeper levels and, at the age of almost 63 years old, am taking my mind, body and Spirit to a new level of health and wellness.

Next March, Tom and I celebrate 40 years of being together, 39 years of marriage.

We have a beautiful village of friends, a warm home and know that together we can make it through whatever life throws our way.

Life isn't perfect; it was never meant to be perfect. There's a lot of heartache and disappointments along side joys and triumphs.

I practice a daily attitude of gratitude focusing on the many many blessings and the grace in my life that lifted me out of the struggles from the past and loosened the ties that kept me bound to habits from the past.

This year I celebrate how far I've come on this, the 10th anniversary of when I was diagnosed with post polio syndrome, a progressive neuromuscular disease, feeling deeply grateful for the healing in my life. I am so grateful that in just a few months, my latest book, "Going the Distance: The Power of Endurance," will be available.



Mary McManus knew challenges since she was five years old beginning with contracting polio followed by enduring nine years of violence at the hands of family members. Those early challenges prepared her for taking on the challenge of the diagnosis of post polio syndrome, a progressive neuromuscular disease in December 2006 when she was at the height of her award winning career as a social worker at the Department of Veterans Affairs. Asking for Divine Guidance as she had throughout her trials and tribulations, she discovered the gift of poetry in her soul. Her first poem, “Running the Race,” foreshadowed her 2009 Boston Marathon run. “Going the Distance: The Power of Endurance,” chronicles Mary’s journey as a survivor of paralytic polio and trauma, as a runner and a woman who refused to quit. Eight years after being diagnosed with post polio syndrome, she was finally able to get traction on her healing journey - to go the distance, a woman transformed who embodies the power of endurance.

To your health and wellness!
~Mary

Giving Thanks for a Rustic Thanksgiving at Diggers Bend Farm

When our son Autumn invited us to his farm for Thanksgiving for a farm to table dinner, we were beside ourselves with excitement. We haven't done a road trip for Thanksgiving in years.

My good friends will tell you I'm not much of a mountain girl; the ocean calls to my soul but I was excited to experience our son's farm and to be together to share Thanksgiving.

I knew we were probably going to hit traffic driving on 90 West on Thanksgiving morning. At first I put on my playlist but then we decided to channel surf and hear the different radio stations as the Boston radio stations faded away in the distance. We played car-aoke and sang along with whatever tunes happened to come on the radio including all Christmas favorites all the time.

When we got bored with that, we decided to play a version of McManus family trivia pursuit reflecting on holidays past as well as reminiscing about our relationship through these past almost 40 years.

We took in the beautiful views from the highway:


and then played when is the traffic going to break. I won because I predicted once we passed I-84 so everyone heading to Connecticut and New York would exit the Mass. Pike.

We chatted with Autumn giving him updates of what towns we were passing through and then returned to the radio. "It's 95.5 Albany playing" you guessed it - "all Christmas favorites all the time."

I could feel my excitement mounting as we wound our way through country roads. Tom and I were joking about us City Slickers heading to the Country for Thanksgiving.

We could not have imagined the beauty, the sights, the sounds, the scents and the fresh air and the joy that our road trip would bring.

Autumn and Michelle went all out in preparing a magnificent farm to table feast for us. We brought a turkey to cook but because of the traffic we knew we wouldn't have time to cook it for our dinner. Fortunately Autumn had prepared a roasted chicken with gravy. We started out with chevre which for those of you who might not know is a cheese made from goat's milk. I could have made a meal out of it. We munched on kale and brussel sprouts as we made stuffing and Michelle made biscuits from scratch. Autumn had picked the squash and potatoes and made a savory butternut squash dish and au gratin potatoes with goat's milk and cheese. He did admit they bought the cheddar cheese to add to the au gratin potatoes. The room was warmed by a wood burning stove. Autumn splits the wood and they have a pile of it by the farm house that was built in the 18th century.

As everything was simmering and biscuits were baking, we went outside to breathe the fresh air and Autumn and Michelle told us more about the history of the farm and farming because Tom and I, as city slickers were clearly lacking in knowledge about how all of this works.



Back inside this rustic home, Bucket, Michelle and Autumn's cat wanted to see if she could sample the Thanksgiving feast as Autumn put the finishing touches on an arugula and another type of lettuce salad with mozzarella cheese made from goat's milk and mashed the squash.



She went from table to Autumn's shoulder and got a bird's eye view of the feast:


We took our time savoring each dish with its unique flavors after serving ourselves family style from the table and then dishing up our gravy from the pot on the wood burning stove.

The turkey continued to cook and would provide us with the necessary Thanksgiving leftovers. Autumn made a turkey gravy that was second to none that I have ever tasted.

After enjoying our meal and being completely satisfied with every dish, we took a walk out onto the farm.

Autumn had suggested we bring boots and I'm glad he did. The first frost and thawing left the field muddy; the kind of mud that would suck your shoes right off of your feet if you weren't careful. We received a tour of the chickens, roosters, Pumpkin the cow and the female goats along with their kids. Hey does that make me a goat grandmother? Well they did have two sets of twins.



We sat around the table having coffee and drinking in the warmth and love of being together for a real old fashioned rustic Thanksgiving.

We carved the turkey, made the gravy and divided up the leftovers. Autumn also sent us home with bagels, chevre, lox, and farm fresh eggs.

It made for one terrific weekend of pre-long run meals and this sumptuous post long run meal after today's 10.5 miler...but that's a story for another day:

Giving Thanks: From Why Me to Try Me

As I was standing underneath the hot shower yesterday, I started wondering..."What is up with this challenging situation that reminds me of several other challenging situations I have been through before?" My mind started wandering to maybe it's karma from a previous lifetime or what am I doing to attract this into my life ... and then the hot water showered grace upon me. I felt Bernie Siegel's presence saying to me, "It's life. Remember what I talk about - say try me instead of why me. Would you want someone else to be going through what you are going through right now? You have the strength to handle anything life sets before you."

Peace and gratitude and yes even a sense of unbridled joy washed over me.



As synchronicity would have it, one of my dear soul mates on Facebook, Stacey Chiew posted this today:

Life is holy shit. God may prefer the term "compost" but it amounts to the same thing. We all have our problems but those problems redirect us and teach us to grow. Our difficulties fertilize our lives. The enlightened individual--and the happy family--knows that possibilities grow out of problems. People who know how to be happy say, "Thank you, God, for the fertilizer," while the unhappy cry out, "Oh God, why us?" - Excerpted from Prescriptions for Living, Bernie Siegel



Shortly after being diagnosed with post polio syndrome 9 years ago next month, I returned to the teachings of Bernie and started writing poetry to heal. I remembered what he said about turning challenges into gifts and this is one of the early poems I wrote:

The Gift of Polio

Thank you God for the gift of polio that brought me so close to you
while paralyzed I saw your face no matter what I’d do
Many wonderful healers you sent them to me at age 5
perseverance and triumph life’s lessons learned
but my Spirit could not yet thrive.

At age 53 the gift was sent to me a second time
having time to sit and feel to heal I started to rhyme.
The second time felt worse than the first
yet your love and wisdom I found
out of pain and weakness and fatigue a remarkable spirit rebound.

Reliving all the trauma of special shoes and such
I discovered remarkable healers who brought a loving touch.
I had no clue I had such strength and the ability to grow
no matter what the outcome deep gratitude I show.

This gift so precious I live a new life gratitude flows from me
my heart and soul are filled with grace each day’s a gift from thee.

More recently I wrote this poem:

Gratitude Tingles

Heart opens in quiet, eyes are closed gratitudes trickle then flow
the basics a home, good food and love awareness begins to grow.
Each beat of my heart reminds me I’m a miracle of life
grace showers constantly upon me relieving alleviating strife.

Goosebumps with each reflection every breath a moment to pause
gratitude tingles feel the warmth relaxing unclenching jaws.
Grateful to now be fully alive so blessed to be kissed awake
appreciation flows in every vein for granted nothing I take.

What joy there is in this journey let Spirit within ever reign
trusting in goodness and kindness erases all fear and pain.
Memory traces from the past pale and fade when connected to Loving Source
gratitude overpowers correcting direction on my life’s course.

In moments of meditation happiness joy and peace
from the depths of my soul a fountain grateful blessings increase.
Lips upturn into beautiful smile from head’s crown to tip of toes
gratitude tingles tickling trail of delight everywhere gratitude goes.

The holidays can be a magical and magnificent time but they can also be a time filled with sadness and heartache. We may not get to choose the circumstances of our lives because life happens but we can certainly choose how to respond to what happens.

I choose gratitude and giving thanks. How about you?