Optimism

 

 At the end of 2020, I chose Optimism as my word for 2021. As we kicked off the New Year, I wrote this in "Hope is a Garden: Poems and Essays From the 2020 Pandemic":

 

Optimism: My Word for 2021                                   January 2, 2021

 

I had been meditating about my word for 2021 or if I was even going to choose a word for 2021. While out on our New Year’s Day run along the beautiful Boston waterfront, people were greeting each other with smiles in their eyes.

 

Runners, people out biking and walking spontaneously said, “Happy New Year” as we passed. The feelings of hope and optimism were palpable in our greetings.

 

I knew that Optimism was my word for 2021.

 

I found this quote several years ago as I was doing the impossible after the diagnosis of Post-Polio Syndrome:

 

“Optimism: Aerodynamically the bumblebee shouldn’t be able to fly. But it doesn’t know it so it keeps on flying anyway.” ~Mary Kay Ash

 

Simon Sinek did a YouTube video in April highlighting the difference between positivity and optimism:

 

“Optimism is different than positive - and it's definitely not naive. Optimism is the belief that the future is positive, that there's a light at the end of the tunnel and we're heading there, together.”

 

When I searched for the exact wording of Helen Keller’s quote about optimism, I learned that she penned a treatise on optimism as a philosophy of life.

 

“Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope or confidence.”

 

Just saying the word optimism makes me smile and lifts my mood. Whenever I experience that all too familiar solar plexus clutch from 2020, I will shift my focus to optimism. I can feel a part of my brain light up that snuffs out the fear and helps me shift to believing that all is well and in Divine order.

 

There's been a lot going on in the headlines that could easily crush one's sense of optimism and hope. Whenever I feel myself drawn into the vortex of fear and uncertainty, I remind myself that all we have is the gift of the present. I open my heart and turn on the spigot in my soul to write poetry and allow calm, joy, hope, gratitude and a vision for how I want things to be instead of harping on the reality I see. 

When I had to endure painful physical therapy sessions to recover from paralytic polio, Miss Holly, my wise physical therapist read Dr. Seuss books to me in the waiting room. As she ministered the excruciating treatments, she would have me recite the lines back to her in tandem from the book I chose in the waiting room, invariably "The Cat in the Hat."

After the diagnosis of Post-Polio Syndrome, I discovered the healing power of the cadence of Dr. Seuss to create a future very different than the ones the doctors predicted for me; that I would spend the rest of my life in a wheelchair. I got still and asked for Divine Guidance and the poem, "Running the Race" flowed out of me. I had no idea at the time it would foreshadow my 2009 Boston Marathon run!

I continue to visualize my world and the world around me through the gift of poetry in my soul transforming fear and angst by connecting to Source.

Unity

Do not quiver waver fear or quake
be aware in tune to Divine’s glory awake.
It’s all deep inside out of stardust we’re made
come into the light step out of shadows and shade.
See the radiant sunrise dawn of new day
Divine intelligence lighting the way.
Listen to heartbeat deep breaths just let go
trusting your instinct be in the flow.
Tune into vibrations of highest kind
gratitude hope sweep past behind.
A mighty power resides deep inside
releasing all worry let Source be our guide.
Believing receiving as grace touches heart
we’re all here together no longer apart.
All it takes is a spark from each other’s soul
kindling our faith world now made whole.

From my heart to yours
In health and wellness,
Mary

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Visit my website to learn more about my journey of transformation in the wake of paralytic polio and trauma to the finish line of the 2009 Boston Marathon and beyond.

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