Friends,
We have some exciting stuff happening this week. Run Rhonda Run! Rhonda will be completing her goal of running 3-4 miles per day for 365 consecutive days on her 50th birthday on Thursday morningā¦while living with MS. Thatās showing MS whoās boss, isnāt it? Iām so happy for you Rhonda!
Iād encourage anyone who can come and cheer Rhonda on for her celebration birthday run by joining us at Westwood Health and Fitness in Pewaukee. Our running group will start the run @ 8:00am and finish between 8:45 and 9:00. Hopefully the weather is nice enough to run outside. If itās not, weāll be running on the track upstairs. Hopefully you can come a little early to the indoor triathlon training and congratulate Rhonda.
Speaking of the indoor triathlon (the event that started this group) training, the first day of training is on Thursday as well. Timing should be about perfect to be able to celebrate with Rhonda and then start training yourself. This event always gets me excited because we consistently see so many people make great strides during this training period. Itās exciting and fun! If youāre not signed up yet, you can still sign up. We have a great lineup so far and still have room for more. If you have the desire to do it but not sure you can, please know you wonāt be alone. We have some amazing volunteers willing to help you.
Weāll have an āArt Partyā on Friday. The National MS Society is hosting an art program and people from our Wisconsin Chapter of the National MS Society will be joining us Friday with art supplies. Weāll be starting @ 11:30 and youāll have an opportunity to draw / paint a picture of what beating MS look like to you. Hereās a description that Joe sent me: āAcross the country, the MS Society Other Special Events team will be organizing Art Parties, where those living with MS can create a painting with the theme āWhat does beating MS look like to you?ā. The mission is simple: get out in the community and connect with those living with MS through artwork. The completed artwork will be used as templates for future projects such as certificate backgrounds, thank you notecards, silent auction items at events, etc.ā I hope youāll join us for this fun!
Hereās a picture from our friends with MS in Colorado who started this program and an example of how it was used.
Sarahās Wok Hard to Fight MS dinner is coming up on February 29th. This is always a fun and delicious event. Sarah and her friends and family do an amazing job with this eventā¦itās a lot of work! Thanks, Sarah for doing this for all of us living with MS! Hereās some info from Sarah:
Hi Dan,
Here is the link for information and to register for Wok Hard to Fight MS on February 29th. The event venue is wheelchair accessible.
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/wok-hard-to-fight-ms-2020-registration-87360308033
Registration is appreciated so we can determine how much food to buy.
Thanks for passing this along. It was great seeing you last Friday. It had been too long :-).
Gratefully,
Sarah
It was nice to have Sarah back last week and see her on her feet again!
We all like to share, right? Sometimes I feel bad about sharing experiences of getting out and doing things because I know itās reaching a lot of people with MS who canāt get out. I realize how challenging MS can be and understand that. As I do share some of these experiences, hopefully theyāre received as hope and inspiration instead of making someone feel bad that they canāt do things they used to. Keep in mind, there have been many days I couldnāt do things like going for a walk either. I still have them at night.
Anyway, I want to share a couple pictures of being thankful to be able to go out for a walk with Clifford, the big red dog. It was such a beautiful morning with the fresh snow, I felt it was a blessing to be out there with Clifford. For all of you who canāt get out for a walk, believe me, I was thinking about you the entire walk. I just thought I would share my experience so you can experience it and enjoy it through me. Clifford looks pretty happy, doesnāt he?
Weāll be getting together again Wednesday @ 11:30 for our prayer group. Weāll be giving thanks to God for our blessings and praying however God leads us. Wow! Iām hearing some powerful comments about this time together. Prayers are being answered weeklyā¦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.
Iād highly recommend you sign up the MS Bike ride August 1st and 2nd. You can do that by clicking here. Once you sign up, thereās a motivational factor that kicks in and helps us get prepared for it. We want you on our teamā¦we have fun!
Letās āJust Keep Movingā. It doesnāt 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. Letās stick together, keep our chins up and keep sharing our journey. Better days are ahead. For those of you who havenāt 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 youāre able to make it back soon!
I hope youāll join us both Wednesday and Friday again this week. Rememberā¦consistency is key. With MS, it takes a lot of consistent effort every day to make small improvements. Yes, itās frustrating so be patient and consistent and youāll be amazed how your quality of life will continue to improve. Itās been about 17 years of exercising just about every day for me and Iām 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 donāt know what my life would be like if I didnāt do this (nor do I want to find out). Iām so thankful you are all joining me on this journey of making progress with our MS and quality of lifeā¦THANK YOU! Weāll continue to learn togetherā¦thereās so much power in the love and support we all share with each other.
In the past, Iāve been telling you to bring a friend. Unfortunately, weāre going to need to start a waiting list for new people. Please feel free to continue to share your experience and what weāre doing together. Let me know of anyone who would like to join us. Iāll 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, Iāll encourage them to do that. If youāve joined us in the past, please continue to join us.
We are here to help you and anyone with MSā¦no strings attached (well maybe an occasional story about the progress youāre 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 Iāve learned and feel blessed with the progress Iāve made. I hope you make progress in some way too!
Place: W228N791 Westmound Dr.
Waukesha, WI
When: Wednesday morning from 9:30am ā 12:30pm (open gym concept, come for all or part of it)
Friday morning from 9:30am ā 12:30pm (open gym concept, come for all or part of it)
Dan Erschen