Stopping On A Dime!

Wednesday morning runs are my favorite runs especially when I get to run with the entire complement of Team McManus. t It's the last workout of a 5 day training cycle. I feel an impending sense of accomplishment and dedication to my health and fitness. In the summer, it's a day to celebrate being able to go outside with just a top (usually tank top) and shorts. It's also the day when we get up early and have breakfast in the yard after the run.

We ran down Eliot Street to make sure we had enough miles to meet my goal of 3.25 miles that would take me closer to my monthly goal of 40+ miles. After Wednesday's run I am at 35.17 miles thanks to an extra 5K for the Virtual Falmouth Education 5K Run last weekend but I digress...

As we were passing our house heading to the Reservoir after debating whether we should run the small or large Reservoir, Tom stopped on a dime.

"Wait. Here's a dime..."


The year was 1989, two years after the birth of our twins.

The day was cloudy but there is always beauty to behold at the newly renovated Route 9 Reservoir:


And we always remind ourselves to Run Happy:


Finding money on a run is a joyful reminder of our connection to Source. We used to find money all the time when we trained for the Boston Marathon; signs from the Divine that I was going to go the distance in fund raising and 26.2 miles after having been told in December of 2006 to prepare to spend the rest of my life in a wheelchair due to the late effects of paralytic polio as a child.

Finding dimes has a particular significance for me as a polio survivor.

In 1926, Roosevelt started the non-profit Georgia Warm Springs Foundation on the site of the springs he visited to partake of the waters’ therapeutic effects. Twelve years later, he reinvented the charity as the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis (NFIP). The NFIP was a non-partisan association of health scientists and volunteers that helped fund research for a polio vaccine and assisted victims on the long path through physical rehabilitation. Funded originally through the generosity of wealthy celebrities at yearly President’s Birthday Balls, the foundation could not raise money fast enough to keep pace with polio’s continued toll on America’s children and, during the Depression, the polio epidemic worsened. In 1938, Roosevelt decided to appeal to the general public for help. At one fundraiser, celebrity singer Eddie Cantor jokingly urged the public to send dimes to the president, coining the term March of Dimes. The public took his appeal seriously, flooding the White House with 2,680,000 dimes and thousands of dollars in donations.

I am still in awe of my journey of transformation that you can learn about on my website at www.marymcmanus.com It's been 13 years since I took a leap of faith to leave my award winning career as a VA social worker to "heal my life." I dedicate five days a week to exercise and 7 days a week to emotional and spiritual well being with meditation, writing in a journal, writing poetry and having an attitude of gratitude.

I allow Spirit to guide me on this path and feel especially blessed when we stop on a dime to receive a sign on a wonderful winning Wednesday morning run.

My books that chronicle my journey of transformation and my book of inspirational poetry are available on Amazon.

From my heart to yours
In health and wellness
To healing, hope and possibilities
Mary