"Anything's Possible"

This last weekend was a quiet one for me, aside from Saturday, when I went to my favorite park and climbed my mountain. Although feeling a bit under the weather, we packed up the dog and our water bottles and headed south. Once we got there, our usual quiet park was now a bustling little recreation area with dozens of families celebrating birthdays and the ushering in of fall. I'm normally quite shy around crowds of people, especially when I am about to struggle to climb the bridge that crosses the river that goes through the park, and this day was the kind of day when I would usually just turn right around and head back home, or go somewhere much more quiet to get my exercise, but instead I pushed forward and faced my fear. I trudged through the crowds of people and headed straight to my Everest.

On the way there I met several people along the way who were also out getting their exercise on the trail. One gentleman in particular was walking with his son, coming down the North side of the bridge. When he saw me heading toward it in my wheelchair, he said "it's going to be tough!", (as if I had no idea of that fact), and his son very quickly and somewhat angrily said to him, "anything's possible dad!" Now first of all, this man had no idea how many times I have climbed that bridge in my chair, I could probably do it faster than he could run up it, and secondly, he had even less of an idea that I was about to climb up it with a crutch and the railing and severly weak and disabled legs!

The beautiful part of this story was his son. That little boy restored my faith in humanity with one phrase. He was about 9 years old, and he was telling his father that anything is possible! It just doesn't get much better than that.

I decided to wait to climb the bridge until I was on my return trip simply because there were just too many people, which would have meant I would have to wait for them to pass, and I like to climb it non stop until I get to the top. So, we rode through the entire trail (2 miles) and then swung back around and I climbed my bridge with more vigor than ever.

That man's son was right, anything's possible! I wish I could find that little optimist and give him a big hug and a high five and tell him he's absolutely right!