APRIL 2, 2011
You know when you determine to start something, all these obstacles come in your way to prevent you from succeeding. Merely challenges to try to throw you off from revealing your true strengths and abilities. The challenge that appeared before me was the technical side to this blog. It wasn’t appearing the way I’d like and for that matter, being somewhat of a perfectionist, I delayed and delayed. But, what another friend told me once was, “You just got to go for it.” And so I did. Some of the backend stuff is bothering me still, but I can’t let it get in the way right now from telling my story.
About being behind… back in elementary school, kids made fun of me for being slow. I couldn’t help it. I had physically induced asthma. I endured this until I was 12, when I watched a young man named Terry Fox attempt to run across Canada to bring greater awareness for cancer research. I was impressed that this person was achieving his utmost potential, and on one leg. I then determined I could beat asthma.
I took ownership of the Buddhist practice my parents adopted into their lives, and fully accepted it into my life. I then started to make a serious effort into improving my running ability. I soon found I was one of the fastest kids in school. Long story short, my highlights in running were anchoring my 4 X 100 team, lead off in the 4 X 400 in the city finals of my senior year of high school, and joining my university track team. Since those early days of huffing and puffing, I haven’t touched an asthma puffer to this day.
My sprinting days are long gone, but I do admit though, with Parkinson’s it was a blow to my ego that I cannot run as fast as I used to. However another good friend reminded me, “It’s not PD that’s slowing you down, it’s your age!” That gave me a good laugh.I’m 43 this year and generally I play soccer and hockey with people ranging anywhere from 10 to 20 years younger and I came to this conclusion: I may not be able to keep up with all of them, but I’ve got ample experience. Experience has shown that I can still score, and honestly, that’s what I love to do. Score.
This Spring, I’ll attempt to play some casual soccer games. I love the camaraderie of sports. I’m looking forward to scoring my first goal of the year, even if I’m a little behind.