Will and Desire - If they can do it, you can, too!

Last Sunday my husband and I took the dogs out for a run, and saw the inspiration for this particular post. It was a man, an older man, walking with a walker on a trail. He had to be in his late 80s. Smile on his face. Whistling. I turned to Ross and said, now that’s what it means to have the will and the desire to keep moving. I hope when we’re that age, we still have that will and desire to MOVE, just get out there and smell the sweet summer air and move the body.

I don’t know what external or internal factors caused the man on the trail to require a walker. The moment passed without any conversation.

But it reminded me of another inspiration of an older man, also instilled with the desire to keep moving. My grandfather. We called him Popa. He had poliomyelitis as a child, and was very sick, for a very long time. We hardly think of polio now, because we’re vaccinated against it when we’re young. But for people who grew up in the early part of the 1900s, polio was a hideous, literally crippling viral disease.

Popa overcame his polio, but for the majority of his life, he wore braces on his legs to keep him stable.

I bet you can guess where I’m going with this. Yes. Popa was an exercise anamoly, especially in that timeframe. He wanted to be strong. He lifted weights, and even went out to the back fence to do squats and stretches. Meaning, he not only had the will and desire to be strong – he also had to do it without a gym membership, or a personal trainer. In the lingo of that (Depression-era) timeframe, he had to "make do with nothing new." And he hardly missed a day.

We are surrounded by people who’ve experienced debilitating accidents, loss of limb(s), partial paralysis, you name it. And guess what: They lift weights, play basketball, ski, surf -- you name it, they do it. They have the will and desire to keep moving.

So I guess what I'm trying to say here is simply this: HEY YOU. Hey you with the two working hands, arms, legs and feet. You with the perfectly fine heart, lungs, internal organs. Get it together. Keep moving.

Because you can.