Day 14: Ability to walk

Hi again. Today I have been thinking about how thankful I am to have legs that work and I can walk. I may not be the most graceful and I often have pain but that doesn't matter because I can walk and I am starting to be able to run again without having to worry about my back. Up until this year it was still too painful for me to run very well despite being given the go ahead by my specialist (who did my back surgeries) to do so. This summer I actually jogged again for the first time since before my first surgery back in 2007 (and not just an attempt but actual jogging!) and it was quite a thrill! Since then I have been working on slowly being able to run longer because as you can imagine, not being able to run for 3yrs has had it's toll. I was out of breath after just a few strides but now I am jogging a bit each morning with our new puppy and I am so thankful for that ability. I got to experience for a little bit what it is like to be stuck in a wheel chair and it helped me to be so much more thankful for the use of my legs. I look back to when I used to play soccer and I am no where near that point and may never be again but I don't mind. Just to be able to move around on my own is quite amazing. When you really think about how often you walk and where you walk and if you had to be in a wheel chair and needed to think about stairs and doors and wheel chair accessible buildings, being able to walk around is pretty darn amazing!