Take Step After Step, Even In The Dark...

I want to tell you about something that I'm thinking - and wondering if you agree or not?! It doesn't seem to be about how bad we are (in terms of hurt after some kind of trauma). It seems to be more about if we want to put in enough of the right sort of effort to make a change. Do we want to walk. Want to get better. A friend of mine who had cancer hated those words - and they may be BS... I don't know.

It's not easy. Sometimes we all have real, real, real horrible days. I had those days and still do sometimes. But overall, we just have to keep going. And if we do, even though we often can't see the daily progress, it is there. Progress happens. We have to keep taking step after step, even in the dark... In the early stages Pilates is the best form of exercise I found - and I tried everything. Pilates and walking - on flat ground and then on uneven ground, such as the grass in the park or the beach. A pilates class is the best but there is a DVD here which is very useful to practice with - just click on the photo or HERE.

I was quite excited to notice something last night... I went to a salsa dance club. Five years ago, the dancing seemed too fast for me to do. Way too fast. I took lessons - tons of lessons - and then slowly, after about a year, the dancing seemed to slow down and I could do it. Magical! I had a great couple of years. There's a good DVD of salsa lessons here - click on the photo above or HERE...

Then I had this other accident almost 3 years ago - just a minor car accident and whiplash. I didn't go dancing at all for over a year and when I did, it was just incredibly fast again and there was no way I could do it. I was so upset. I went several times (just in case I'd been wrong?!) and every time it was way too fast. I still took lessons, although all of the progress I'd made before had just disappeared and I had to start from scratch. First I was too dizzy to spin at all. Then, slowly I could spin just once now and again...

Last night, finally, I noticed the dancing seemed to be a tiny bit slower again! Gingerly I tried, with a partner I knew from lessons - thank you Joe. I found I could manage a little. At last! It had been 3 whole years and a ton of lessons since I was able to dance. I was over the moon!

Stamina is something else and is still a problem for me - I used to be able to work full time and do 3 lessons a week plus go out dancing - and more. For a long while - over a year - I was able to do nothing other than rehab in the hospital. Slowly I added walks on the beach and kept up my vitamin schedule. Now I'm working just part-time and can only manage one lesson a week and the odd evening out. But that's better then a year ago and I think it still getting better - I just can't always see it. I have to take my own advice and be patient and keep trying too!

I guess what I'm saying is this: if you keep trying then slowly - very slowly - things will come into focus again. They will slow down, as it were. It's not easy to keep going when you think you see impossibility around you. But somehow you have to keep going. Eventually the impossible may become possible.

Have a lovely sunny day, with a hug, Julie