In a scene from one of my favorite Irish films, The Commitments ? the story of a young soul band forming in 1980?s Dublin ? three of the band members are trying to come up with a name for their group.
?How about ?And, And, And?!? says one of the lads.
I mention that because it seems lie something of a lifestyle choice here in Ireland. Everyone seems to be/do more than one thing. A grocer-and-member of the county council, a publican-and-lifeboat captain, the farmer-and-builder for example. Last week we took our bicycles to be reassembled by the local publican-and-bike repairman. As we don?t yet have a car ? and we know how walking can be with MS ? the bikes make for easy transportation, a walker on the days when balance precludes actually riding and the flip-out baskets on the back make carrying groceries (yes, from the grocer-and-MP) back home from the shops.
While I?ll not pass judgment on the work of the bicycleman (he is after all, a publican and I do want to get a decent pint now and again), let?s just say that my bike will need a tune-up once the proper bike shop opens back up in the spring (as I have neither the tools nor the mechanical inclination to figure out how to fix the issue)
While Caryn was riding further and further ahead of my on our first trip back from town, I noted that my breaks needed major adjustment. The rear brakes weren?t deployed completely, so I could still pedal and make my way along the road. Each crank, however, took more effort than it should have ? even in the lowest gears ? and, though I tried my hardest, I just couldn?t keep up.
Something unseen to my eyes was dragging against my efforts. Somewhere in the workings of the machine that carried my, a small glitch was holding me back?making me tired?slowing me down.
I needn?t, for those living with MS, put any finer point on the analogy. Living life with multiple sclerosis can sometimes be like riding along with the brakes on. Try as we might, it takes more for us to go just as far and sometimes it?s just more than we can give to get only part of the way.
These brakes do not stop us, however. We pedal on; we work very hard to get our load to its final destination. We know this.
The important lesson for me this day was learned as I cranked and huffed and cursed the damned breaks past the last of the row-cottages at the end of the town. The sun broke from behind the stone buildings and the town?s harbor glittered in the clear winter air. Birds picked into the muddy flats that the receding tide had laid bare for them to forage. The cold smell of the sea mingled with a warm incent of turf fire smoke from the chimneys and met the freshness of the rain I hoped to beat to my door.
I came to realize that the living part of a life with MS goes on around us every day. While the brakes of this disease may slow us down, may make nearly everything more difficult and cause some parts of life to be just damned impossible, it is important for me to look around and to live around.
We can chose to focus on the fact that the breaks slow us down or we can chose to see the journey - a little slower, a little more difficulty, and perhaps not as fully as before ? for the old saying that life is the journey not the destination is one of life?s truest realizations? multiple sclerosis or not.
Wishing you and your family the best of health.
Cheers
Trevis
You can also follow me via our Life With MS Facebook page, on Twitter, and in our group on MS Connection.org. Also, check out our bi-monthly MS blog for the United Kingdom, look for our very special new monthly blog for the National MS Society, and don?t forget to check out TrevisLGleason.com.
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