Living with M.S.

"Living with M.S. is sort of like training for a long race. The harder you try, and the longer you keep at it, the stronger you become.
Eventually, looking back, you may be amazed at the power you possessed, even when you had no idea it was within your reach." (Linda Ann Nickerson)

Monday

A-Z promising quotes: Endurance



The MS life takes endurance and plenty of it. Pain, fatigue, stress, vertigo, inexplicable numbness and tingling, mental fog, and other multiple sclerosis symptoms seem to set us back and make us stumble in frustration and confusion. Occasionally, simply going on another day seems to take all the endurance one can muster.

Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) said this about endurance:

“A man on a 1,000-mile walk has to forget his goal and say to himself every morning, ‘Today I’m going to cover 25 miles and then rest up and sleep.’”
Leo Tolstoy

This quotation encourages me, especially as an MSer.

Hey, I’m all for setting goals and prizing them. I believe we can accomplish plenty and derive a healthy sense of motivation by focusing on targets. But I also know the dreaded overwhelmed feeling that can result from a fixation on the enormity of a mission.

Consider Tolstoy. I’m pretty sure he didn’t have MS. But he surely had endurance. Can you imagine writing a book as long as War and Peace? (Just try reading it. It’s a classic, but it takes endurance to get through that many pages!)

Anyone living with multiple sclerosis knows firsthand how energy levels and physical capabilities can run out suddenly and without warning. A day’s plans can change in an instant, simply because the MonSter decides to zap us with total exhaustion, crippling numbness, excruciating pain, or other onslaughts.

But sometimes, breaking up a big plan into more manageable pieces can be both practical and encouraging.

Few of us are going to walk 1,000 miles anytime soon. We may not even walk to the mailbox. But we can take life a few steps at a time , even figuratively, and really go someplace.

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4 comments:

  1. I don't have to live through what you're going through - it's admirable that you keep the "one step at a time" thought in your head despite it all. Good advice!

    Jessica
    2015 A to Z Blogger
    Visions of Other Worlds

    ReplyDelete
  2. 25 miles in a day is a lot!
    I honor the strength of anyone who lives with pain every day. Good luck and best wishes,
    ~AJ Lauer
    an A-Z Cohost
    @ayjaylauer on Twitter

    ReplyDelete
  3. Great explanation of MS and sudden loss of endurance. It's so hard to explain to people.

    ReplyDelete
  4. One step at a time is true for just about everybody, no matter the challenges in life. Not to lose faith and not to give up is key.

    ReplyDelete