Travel Tuesday: Ten Years of Keeping Going

Today marks the ten years, since I started my second chance at life. I don't talk much about my health, if you want to gorey details of what happened in May-July of 2015, you can go back and look in the archives. In a nutshell, I had a tumor compressing my spinal cord. It was removed and a section of my spine is held together with 6 titanium plates and 12 screws. I allow myself to think and write about this once a year.  As time goes on the writing is more of a reminder of the fragility of our mobility. I was millimeters away from never walking again.  

I am thankful for the success of ten years ago, making possible the last ten years of grand adventures.  I push myself to make the most of my opportunities to move about as freely as I can. As I recently told my general practitioner when she asked how I am doing after ten years, as I work at it, I continue to feel progress. I feel stronger than I did a year ago, and last year I felt stronger that I did the year before. Things are not perfect, and never will be. But I move forward on making the most of what I have to work with.  

There are things I can't do, things that I will never do, but there is also so much that I can do. And I try to celebrate the things I can do everyday, and with every adventure in travel.  There are days, and ways that things hurt, there are parts of me that don't move like they once did, and never will move again.  Pain is a part of being alive, as long as it is tolerable, I move forward.  I measure myself not by what others can do, but by what I can do, and what I actually do. And that is lots.  I have much to be thankful for. 

Never put off to next year, what you can do this year. There is no guarantee that next year will be an option.  Don't let your limitations define you. Make the most of what you have to work with. Enjoy the adventure everyday, every opportunity. Love yourself for who you are and what you can do.