DAY FIVE: Never Take Your Body For Granted

My mind and spirit are more alive than ever. My body, well, that's another story. 

Most people don't know this about me, but I've been, pretty much, messed up since birth. I didn't get the magnitude of how messed up until I was in my forties. 

I was born with a tethered cord, twisted hips, cavus feet, and a crooked leg that is smaller in width and length by almost two inches. I knew I was a little different growing up, but in clothes, I looked normal. I even modeled, and at times, in swimsuits. I guess I just knew how to position myself. 

I was also in a lot of pain, but I assumed everyone was in pain—that's all I knew. 

This changed when I was twenty-nine years old. One night, after watching 'Cheers' with Luc, I tried to stand up, only to collapse to the floor. Luc had to carry me to bed that night. 

The next day, I got my first dose of doctor reality. However, it wasn't until I was forty-eight years old (after a few disk surgeries and procedures), that I found out I had a tethered cord. 

Two weeks later, I had spinal cord surgery; leaving me to learn how to walk again. 

That's when I fell madly in love with walking. 

You see, even though my brain and legs needed to connect with one another again. For the first time since I could remember, I wasn't in pain while walking. So, I started in my bedroom, to pacing the hallway, finally made it downstairs, soon out the front door, then a block, and another block, to several blocks. 

Eventually the blocks turned into mountains. 

That's when I first heard about the Camino de Santiago. And when I turned fifty, I gave myself the gift of walking six-hundred and fifty-two miles of the Camino—alone—with a forty pound plus backpack, a bad disc, and all my other messed up body parts. 

Camino de Santiago

Within months of returning home, I had disc repair surgery, hip surgery, and a year later, an L-5 fusion and a disc replacement. 

Of course, I'll never be one hundred percent normal—but, omg, my back was almost completely painless. All the surgeries had paid off and my body felt as on fire as my mind and spirit. 

Cut to, less than seven months later, I was carelessly crossing the street in Beverly Hills, when a driver who was carelessly driving backwards at a high speed to get a parking spot, hit me. 

You should have seen his car. 

And I have been in recovery ever since. This time, not due to a birth defect that was never questioned once, but from one decision that would change my life forever. 

Phew, that was a lot to get out! 

So, here I am, four years after the accident, walking the Camino de Santiago once again.

Camino de Santiago

And today, that thing called mind, body and spirit, was back to being pair. Pure mind and pure spirit. Body: not so useful. Holy shit—after twenty-two miles of trekking mountains and ancient Roman roads in excruciating heat, my twisted, uneven, damaged, overheated frail frame was a walking miracle. 

Bottom line—we are resilient creatures. Magnificent beings—living a human existence. That's why we are all called human BEINGS. And, yes, we are capable of accomplishing pretty much anything. There is always someone out there, most probably millions, that have it worse than you do at any given moment—no matter what you are facing. 

Lastly, never taking WALKING for granted. ;)