Teach your parents well

I wonder if my children will ever grasp the truth that watching them run has healed my hurts from never being able to run? Or all that watching them run has taught me. Not their job, but it is what happened. God knew the next best thing would be for me to watch my children run. What a beautiful thing it is.

When you have children, you often think about all you will teach them. Sometimes you even stress about what you need to teach them in the time you have with them under your roof. It can seem overwhelming when thinking too far ahead. One thing no one talks too much about is all that your children will teach you. I have learned so much about myself through raising my two sons. I have learned that I do some things well, and I have also learned that some things that I do/did, need/needed to be let go or changed. In fact, I am still learning from them and my boys are 17 and 21.

I have learned so much watching them and others run these last several years. I have seen a lot of joy, pain and hardworking kids pushing to the max, day in and day out, nearly all year around. I relate in the way that I can, knowing the toll that daily taxing on a body takes. What it does physically as well as mentally. I know it differently, but I know.

In many ways, I think that watching them run all these years has given me the strength to keep going with my own daily “training.” Each day is a feat of physicality for me, and a mental mountain to climb. Seeing their persistence and drive has been extremely inspiring to me. I doubt I would be doing as well physically as I am today without their motivation in my life. I truly do not think I would have the same attitude towards my workouts, or the spirit to keep going after 50 years of it.

I think it is a good reminder that we can gain inspiration and motivation from others who are doing different things than we are. We can take something positive from others and apply in an applicable way in our own lives. Who knew that something I have never been able to do would have such a monumental impact on my life?

Another thing I have learned from my boys is humility. What stands out the most is not their successes in running, but rather the times when it was difficult, or they were injured and how they handled those instances. Staying humble, even in the moments of defeat. That is not easy to do. It is easier to be angry at the letdown’s life throws our way. That anger seems warranted. What is not easy is facing tough times with humility. I watched each of them grow tremendously in humility throughout their years of running. Accepting that life throws everyone curveballs, and handling those in a humble way is taking the more difficult path.

However, that is the path of life. The path where you will come out ahead when you make it through. Living with a disability, each day, there are defeating moments, physically and mentally. I have learned to try to humbly accept those moments with a little more grace for myself.

I’ve also learned through watching them run the value of teammates. It is their teammates that helped keep them humble and helped pick them up when they were down. I was never part of a competitive team growing up, so I did not really understand the value of a teammate. It has helped me to see that I too have a team of people ready to pick me up when I am down, or there to help when I call on them.

Mostly, through watching them run, I have learned how to enjoy something that is hard. I have learned that in the hard things, there can be joy too. I think my life in the last few years reflects this. I have made some radical changes in the way that I view my disability. I would attribute a lot of that to the lessons my boys have taught me. They have lived with humble courage, and it has been a beautiful thing to witness. As I watched my youngest son run his last high school cross country race recently, I felt an immense sense of pride in the way that he has handled himself through the years. I felt the same when my oldest son ran his last cross country race several years ago.

I believe my children have taught me just as much, if not more, than I have taught them as their mother. Sometimes the best things in life are those things we never see coming.

Until next time …

Amy Shinneman is a former National Ambassador for the Muscular Dystrophy Association, disability blogger, wife, and mom of two boys. You can find her blog at humblycourageous.com and reach her on Instagram @ashinneman.