Persevering

Saturday I was especially proud of two relatives who persevered in adversity.

My nephew is a runner....a very good runner. Saturday I got to watch him run against opponents from 7 or 8 other international high schools in a cross country race. The competition was stiff. The course was rugged. It's a challenge to walk on the course, let alone run it. But Jared persisted. He runs all the time and it showed when he crossed the finish line ahead of all but one other runner. I admire Jared's persistence and was immensely proud of his success.

I'm married to a man who also knows a great deal about persistence. For the last two months Russ has been experiencing a lot of pain in his left forearm. I rub ointment into it twice a day to help relieve the pain temporarily, but the only thing that will cure it is to not use it. He only has one arm that he can use and he uses it to do everything. To not use it would be to make himself immobile and that would bring on a host of other problems.

Walking with a cane puts so much stress on the muscles in his arm and hand that we've had to cut out unessential walking. But, he needs that exercise so Russ is working on walking without a cane! He says I shouldn't call it "walking", rather "shuffling." Whatever you want to call it, it's impressive. The layout of our house is such that one can walk through the kitchen, dining room, and living room making a loop. Last week he made three loops without putting any weight on his cane. Saturday he wanted to do it again. I wondered if he'd be up to doing three loops again since it takes so much concentration and stamina. Russ had something else in mind. He made seven loops!

They say "No pain; no gain." I think God has a different twist to that..."Give me your pain; I'll give you gain."

Beaming in Tokyo,
Flossie