The Game's Afoot...

a memorial birthday challenge in memory of Thomas Aston...

In February of 2008, I walked into Marathon Sports Brookline to buy my first pair of running shoes. "What are you wearing now?" the incredibly handsome Spencer Aston asked me. "Um well..polio shoes..." Thirty minutes later I walked out of Marathon Sports with my first pair of running shoes and a new friend. Spencer and his Fenway Quintet played a benefit concert for Team McManus' 2009 Boston Marathon run. So when Spencer asked me if I would help him fund raise for his first marathon run in San Diego on June 3, I jumped at the opportunity. Spencer conceptualized "The Game's Afoot...: The memorial birthday challenge is a unique event where every participant gets to choose the challenge. Options are based o participant's age and you have the choice of selecting a distance challenge or a time challenge. For example, if you are 38 years old you have the option of completing a 38K run or a run of 38 minutes in length. It's completely up to you! If you wish to participate as a walker, you can choose the memorial 2 mile walk."

I messaged my facebook friends, we spread word about the facebook event; I posted in L Street and Merrimack Valley Striders running groups pages. I reached out to my yoga friends who run. I helped secure raffle prizes. There was an option for virtual runners/walkers. If people opted to not participate for $30 which included 5 raffle tickets and a New Balance tech shirt (photo below), they would make a $5 donation and be entered into the raffle.

Fifteen people registered for the event including virtual runners. We'd hoped there would be more registrants on game day (which did not happen). Bananas and bagels were donated for apres run/walk. Spencer and his wife Chelsea bought water for the particpants. Despite the 'low' turnout, spirits ran high. Chelsea and Spencer set up a water table at the Chestnut Hill Reservoir just as they would have if 100 people had shown up for the day's event. Team McManus was delighted to be reunited on this glorious day for a wonderful cause and opted for the 2 mile power walk.

After the event, we had a chance to visit with Spencer's sister, her husband and their two adorable daughters. Spencer and his family talked about Spencer's dad. Boy I sure wish I would have known him. He died seven years ago from leukemia. He was an artist, a thespian, a writer - a true Renaissance man. His signature was the design Spencer used for the tech shirts. Thomas Aston's presence was palpable as the family shared memories.

We talked about the girls doing a lemonade stand and selling the New Balance tech shirts that were left over and a benefit concert in his sister's home town in Connecticut to help Spencer meet and exceed his fund raising goal. The song I chose for today's blog post is Fanfare. Spencer is a quiet, humble man who lives an honest life of integrity and passion. He does so with little fanfare. Despite being a trumpet player, Dr. Aston (he has a Ph.D.) does not blow his own horn. So I'm doing it for him. Open your heart and your checkbook and donate whatever you can to Spencer's San Diego Marathon run as part of Team in Training on his fund raising page. If you'd like to donate to receive the New Balance tech t shirt valued at $40, please email Spencer at runtrumpet@hotmail.com. Please take a moment and read his story on his blog, Running With My Father. Tissue warning!

“….I firmly believe that any man’s finest hours – his greatest fulfillment of all that he holds dear – is that moment when he has worked his heart out in good cause and lies exhausted on the field of battle – victorious.” - Vince Lombardi

Here is to your finest hours Spencer as you run with your father at the 2012 San Diego Marathon! God speed.

From my heart to yours
With deepest, admiration and total gratitude
Mary

Nourishing Wisdom by Marc David - Book Review

When my elderly neighbor invited me over to her yard and offered me pepsi and potato chips as a 'treat', I gave pause and reflected on what Marc David wrote in his book Nourishing Wisdom. He shares how he became a vegetarian when he went off to college. When he came home for Thanksgiving dinner he would refuse to eat the turkey dinner that his grandmother prepared with so much love. Needless to say there was family tension and stress. One year he realized that what he ate was not as important as why he was eating it and the conditions under which he was eating it. He ate the turkey that year and the entire holiday experience was transformed. He said that he was able to completely digest and assimilate the Thanksgiving feast. I sipped on the pepsi and graciously accepted sharing her potato chips with her. After we talked, laughed and reminisced, she gave me a huge hug and said how grateful she was for my company looking forward to the next time we drink soda and eat chips again.

I was talking with my friend Mckenna about how my body has changed since I began to practice yoga. My sugar cravings have greatly diminished. I crave healthy foods and am much more aware of what my body is asking me to feed it. She told me I had to read Marc David's book and she was right. Marc exposes our beliefs about diet and nutrition. He addresses the concepts of ordered and disordered eating pointing out that to some extent we all have disordered eating. There is no one diet that is right for all people. There is not even one diet that is right for one person for all time. He talks about the important factors of health, age, seasons, environment and lifestyle and how they impact our food choices. Food is neither good nor bad, it's about our thoughts and perceptions around food. My favorite analogy was when Marc talks about a butcher knife. A trauma survivor sees it as a weapon; a chef sees it as a tool to prepare food. Marc weaves in spirituality, the mind body connection and anecdotes from his and his clients' experiences to shed light on a subject everyone struggles with - diet and nutrition.

While our relationship with food can be extremely challenging, Marc leads us through the maze and myths about diets to practical advice about becoming AWARE of our relationship with food, our bodies and nourishment. After each chapter Marc offers us a section on Key Lessons and Reflections offering exercises to raise our awareness, become more mindful and expand our consciousness as it pertains to eating, nutrition and nourishment.

On page 176 Marc concludes, "The bottom line is this: No diet is right or wrong. Any method of eating can provide a deeper nourishment as long as the missing ingredient - consciousness - is present. The ability to reflect on our relationship to food and the awareness that we can expand our perspective on eating at any moment help create the life we want most."

Marc has a chapter on what it means to experience 'ordered' eating and describes "expert eaters" as having the following attributes (p. 175)
They eat with freedom from fear, worry or guilt.
They eat with both an intuitive understanding and knowledge of the body's changing nutritional needs.
They accept their body as it is.
They use diet as a transformational tool.
They eat with joy.

Here's to all of us becoming expert eaters finding joy and freedom in our relationship with food and nourishment. Liberate yourself from the guilt, fear and worry about am I eating right and read "Nourishing Wisdom" by Marc David. For more information about the transformational work Marc is doing in the field of the psychology of eating, visit his website Institute for the Psychology of Eating. Be sure to read his compelling blog and explore the wonderful resources on his website. Marc's work is a beacon of light and clarity in the field of nutrition which has been muddied by so many 'expert opinions' on what we 'should' be eating to be healthy. As with everything in life, we have the intuitive wisdom to know what we need to do in order to feel vibrant and healthy. Marc gives us the tools and guidance we need to act on that wisdom.

From my heart to yours
With deepest love and total gratitude,
Mary

Book Review Before The World Intruded

I "happened" to 'meet' Michele Rosenthal of Heal My PTSD through Matthew Sanford's group on Facebook. Matthew was going to be a guest on Your Life After Trauma radio show that Michele hosts. We exchanged a few emails and then I joined her community, shared my story having no idea that a beautiful friendship would develop and that by knowing Michele and being a part of her Heal My PTSD community, that I would fully embrace my recovery from trauma.

Today is the release of Michele's memoir, "Before The World Intruded". Before the world intruded, Michele was a 13 year old like any 13 year old girl you would meet and then she experienced a profound life altering event as a result of a medical mistake. She takes us from her hospital bed where she struggled between choosing life and choosing death, on her 25 year struggle with undiagnosed post traumatic stress disorder to her triumphant 40th birthday celebration.

Michele writes from the vantage point of a survivor and a professional who is a certified trauma coach and hypnotherapist knowing what salient points are for the reader who is a trauma survivor. She writes from the heart of a poet weaving wonderful metaphors and images to take us on her journey. Michele's story will touch your heart and enlighten you to the world of a trauma survivor and the indomitable drive of the spirit to prevail and create a life of joy and freedom ultimately choosing to serve others. I marveled at the similarities between her story and my story. Michele and I often say there is only one story although the details may differ from person to person. But even if you are not a trauma survivor, you will be enthralled by Michele's telling of her compelling story universal to the human condition.

Michele has clarified so much of my own journey - the struggles and the triumphs. I felt goosebumps as she talked about her struggle with her before and after trauma self. Last July, I had written out two columns in my journal - my polio/trauma self and my transformed self identifying the characteristics and traits of each. With each passing day, I am able to step more fully into my transformed self leaving the old world of trauma behind being fully present in the moment. Michele's memoir catapulted my healing journey to a new level. Michele's story is one that brings hope, possibility, and inspiration to trauma survivors weaving clinical information about PTSD into the wonderful plot driven odyssey that Michele shares with openness, brutal honesty, integrity and grace.

As Michele ends her memoir she writes,
"From my own experience, professional training, stories I've heard from many survivors, plus my work with clients I am convinced that we all have the potential to construct and deconstruct and change ourselves, our brains, and our traumatic connections. Indeed, recent research about neuroplasticity proves more and more of the brain's inherent capacity to heal. The implications of this are an enormous reversal in the idea that the changes PTSD causes cannot be undone. Often, they can. There is hope for us all." (p. 218)

Michele - you ARE a beacon of hope and light and possibility leading the way to transform lives and the way that clinicians treat post traumatic stress disorder. Even though your healing rampage is over, you have a quest for continued knowledge and for spreading your message. You did just that in "Before The World Intruded." Thank you for your courage, your strength, for choosing life and for being an incredible writer.

You can purchase Michele's memoir through Amazon.

Be sure to tune into her weekly radio show Your Life After Trauma. Here is the link to the podcast to last week's show. I was so blessed to share my healing odyssey with her and her listeners. http://yourlifeaftertrauma.com/how-to-overcome-anxiety-posttraumatic-stress-disorder/ Because Michele knows what it feels like to have the world intrude with a life altering event, she honors, embraces and shares the healing stories of other trauma survivors with a love and passion to let everyone know in her words, "You have enormous healing potential. The goal is learning to access it. Dig deep. You can do it. I believe in you!"

From my heart to yours
With deepest love and total gratitude,
Mary

Opening Day

For those of you not in Red Sox Nation, today is akin to a religious holiday in Boston - Opening Day at Fenway Park. For today's blog post I chose the song, "Sweet Caroline". I realized that I did not know the origins of playing Sweet Caroline at Fenway Park so I did a little googling:

Another mystery of the Diamond, explained at last

By Stephanie Vosk, Globe Correspondent | May 29, 2005
"The lyrics have nothing to do with baseball.

The composer has no connection to the Red Sox.

The song hit the charts more than 30 years ago.

So why does ''Sweet Caroline" pump from the speakers at Fenway Park in the middle of the eighth inning of every single Red Sox game? ...
Amy Tobey knows the answer to the ''Sweet Caroline" question.

Tobey began working for the Red Sox through her job at BCN Productions, a film and video communications company, having interned for the Boston Bruins.

Her assignment was to decide what music would be played at the park from 1998 to 2004.

She had noticed ''Sweet Caroline" was used at other sporting events, and she decided to send the sweetness over the Fenway speakers.

The song was picked up by fans, and the more it caught on, the more superstitious Tobey became about playing it.

Tobey would play the song somewhere between the seventh and ninth innings if the team was ahead, depending on whether she felt the team was going to win.

She didn't go by any specific margin of runs, but rather who the opponent was, and her gut instincts.

''I actually considered it like a good luck charm," Tobey says. ''Even if they were just one run [ahead], I might still do it. It was just a feel."

In 2002, when new management took over at the park, they requested that Tobey play the song during the eighth inning of every game.

''They liked it and they just loved the crowd reaction with it and stuff," she says.

Though Tobey says she was nervous the change would be bad luck for the team, its appeal to fans ultimately ruled.

And under the song's spell, the Red Sox last season won their first World Series in 86 years.

It was even included in the recent film ''Fever Pitch," starring Jimmy Fallon and Drew Barrymore, that appropriates scenes from 2004's winning season."

I have written a book review on The Joy of Sox book and reflected on a recent talk I attended by Rick Leskowitz that speaks to heart energy and the energy that can be generated when a group with a common purpose come together - like opening day.

What if we treated every day of our lives like opening day feeling the hope, the possibility, the goodwill, the joy, the anticipation of a championship season? What if we greeted strangers we meet smiling, drawing from the energy of a Spring day with perfect temperatures, blue skies and everything in bloom with a sense of optimism for our common purpose. And what if we approached life the way sports psychologists coach players in a slump; forget about yesterday's strike out. Focus on each time being a new ballgame (literally and metaphorically) when you step up to the plate feeling the strength and power within of when you hit that home run.

When I was growing up, gym class was excruciatingly painful for me as a survivor of paralytic polio. Back in the 50's and 60's there was no disability awareness and I bore the brunt of a lot of teasing and taunting. My nickname was "Easy Out Alper" - ha! That's what they thought. I would always be chosen last for a team and one of my favorite memories of all time is the day that everyone moved in from the outfield when I came to the plate for kick ball. Everyone was laughing at me. The wind up, the pitch and by some miracle I connected with the ball and kicked it hard. Now if everyone would have remained in the outfield, I might not have scored a home run but there was no one there to field the ball and so I trotted around the bases. I can still feel the power of connecting with that ball in my core and it's a body memory that takes me through many challenges on my yoga mat and off.

There was a time when every day felt like I was part of a losing season and I had no idea how to find my way out of the slump. I was in a dark hole slipping farther and farther away from life but never losing hope. Somehow I held onto a sliver of hope and my Spirit led me out of the darkness into this glorious life that I now live. It's taken a lot of hard work in the off season, many healing angels, guides and teachers to bring me to today's Opening Day. Remember when you show up at the plate, play full on with all of your heart, you are a champion. The energy is electric in Boston and I feel so blessed to be a part of these wonderful traditions - Red Sox baseball and the Boston Marathon. I am so grateful to feel well enough to appreciate life the way I do. Play ball!

From my heart to yours
With eternal love and total gratitude,
Mary