Friends,   

As you know, we are a family of people living with MS that shares our love and experiences.  Through the years of gathering, we’ve learned a lot about truly “living” with MS together.  Recently, and through requests in our prayer group, we’ve had requests to offer support for our friends, spouses and caregivers.  As we listen to these requests, we will be offering some time where we get together and share experiences, ideas and feelings.  This, like everything else we do will evolve as we go.  The important thing is that we get it started.

We’ve been kicking ideas around about when we should do this.  MS is not easy to live with, for us living with MS or our loved ones.  I hope sharing from the perspective of a loved one helps someone on some way.  I’m confident it will.  If your spouse, friend or caregiver is interested in joining us with this, please let Larry or me know you’re interested.  Once we have a few people interested, we’ll come up with a time, place, frequency, etc. to meet.   

Speaking of a spouse sharing love, Benno made Suzanne’s birthday special last week as he brought cupcakes in for all of us to share and celebrate Suzanne’s birthday.  Thanks to all who made this day special for her!  Happy Birthday Suzanne!

Rich has been working really hard and making progress lately.  He’s been sitting up by himself and swaying back and forth.  Last week, with the help of a few friends, Rich was able to get on the Alinker and stand by himself and then sway back and forth standing.  This is exciting!!  It’s also good to see that the Alinker is beneficial for standing as well as walking.  Nice job Rich and everyone that helped!  Rich had big smiles while he was swaying back and forth, unfortunately, I missed the big smile…trust me it’s in his heart.

I love it when new people get an opportunity to ride bikes for the first time.  Last week, Sarah and Adam (Atom) 😊went for their first bike ride together outside even though it was cold out.  I have a good feeling they’ll be riding together more in the future, especially when it warms up.  Welcome Sarah and Adam!

We’ll be getting together again Wednesday @ 11:30 for our prayer group.  We’ll be giving thanks to God for our blessings and praying however God leads us.  Wow!  I’m hearing some powerful comments about this time together.  Prayers are being answered weekly…thank you God!  Feel free to join us.  If you need to come in a little early to get your exercise in before this starts, feel free to do so.

Let’s share!  A few weeks back Suzanne asked if we could start a sharing group.  This would be a group that we share gadgets, ideas and experiences of things that have helped us living with MS.  Let’s get together Friday @ 11:30 in the lunch room and see what kind of ideas we can share.  Living with MS is challenging.  Perhaps we can make it a little easier for some by sharing.

I’d highly recommend you sign up the MS Bike ride August 1^st and 2^nd.  You can do that by clicking here.  Once you sign up, there’s a motivational factor that kicks in and helps us get prepared for it.  We want you on our team…we have fun!

Let’s “Just Keep Moving” again in 2020.  It doesn’t matter where we start.  We can all start with laughing which is great exercise in itself.  Other than that, we start with the body parts that will move and keep moving them as much as we can.  Let them rest and then move them again.

I know there are still many of us going through other life challenges in addition to our challenges with MS.  Let’s stick together, keep our chins up and keep sharing our journey.  Better days are ahead.  For those of you who haven’t been able to make it by us on Wednesdays and Fridays lately, please know you are missed and in my thoughts and prayers.  I hope you’re able to make it back soon!

I hope you’ll join us both Wednesday and Friday again this week.   Remember…consistency is key.  With MS, it takes a lot of consistent effort every day to make small improvements.  Yes, it’s frustrating so be patient and consistent and you’ll be amazed how your quality of life will continue to improve.  It’s been about 17 years of exercising just about every day for me and I’m still making improvements (encouragement, love, support, nutrition and proper rest help immensely too).  It takes time so please be patient.  It sure is better than MS getting worse.  I really don’t know what my life would be like if I didn’t do this (nor do I want to find out).  I’m so thankful you are all joining me on this journey of making progress with our MS and quality of life…THANK YOU!  We’ll continue to learn together…there’s so much power in the love and support we all share with each other.

In the past, I’ve been telling you to bring a friend.  Unfortunately, we’re going to need to start a waiting list for new people.  Please feel free to continue to share your experience and what we’re doing together.  Let me know of anyone who would like to join us.  I’ll communicate with these people through e-mail or phone and help them any way I can.  When we have room for them to join us, I’ll encourage them to do that.  If you’ve joined us in the past, please continue to join us.

We are here to help you and anyone with MS…no strings attached (well maybe an occasional story about the progress you’re making, smile, high five or a hug).  I remember how challenging life used to be when my MS was bad.  I get great joy sharing what I’ve learned and feel blessed with the progress I’ve made.  I hope you make progress in some way too!

Place:  W228N791 Westmound Dr.
Waukesha, WI

When:  Wednesday morning from 9:30am – 12:30pm (open gym concept, come for all or part of it)
Friday morning from 9:30am – 12:30pm  (open gym concept, come for all or part of it)

Dan Erschen

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