I have been living.
I have been loving.
I have been playing and singing and dancing.
I have been making and serving meals for the homeless shelter.
I have been training to run a marathon.
I, for the first time in my life recognized I was burned out and pulled out of a marathon.
Returned to playing.
I bought a stand up paddle board and smoothly and silently in the very early hours of the morning make my way across the lake.
I take the dog out on morning runs.
And yesterday I went sailing. I learned how to sail as a kid. Lack of practice and life precluded me from going further than ballast on a boat. On a boat I was nothing more than a passenger. But that was then...
Today I want to be a participant. I want to make educated choices and submerge myself (guess that's not the best choice of words when it comes to boats) in life. I don't just want to learn to sail I want to feel what it is to sail.
I didn't just learn to climb the mountains. I immersed myself in the mountains. It wasn't always pretty, often I was scared and lonely. But I came to truly feel what life on a mountain is like and even now a smell or a cloud formation will bring me back to Argentina or Alaska.
I want to feel the same way about sailing.
And isn't it awesome? The choices we have? The ability to take on something new and totally different and try? Like I always say, what is the worst thing that can happen? You have to turn back? Head for shore? It doesn't matter - the point is you tried.
I have been busy living and trying and well, sometimes failing. But the joy I get from trying and the hope that I can give that message to someone else just learning they have Multiple Sclerosis makes it all worthwhile.
Embrace life. You will never be disappointed!
Climb On!
- Wendy