June 28, 2021 - During the last couple weeks I was out west seeing family and friends. It was totally great. Part of the time we were out there I visited my mom, who as I have mentioned before, has dementia, but is in general a happy person, which is a great. A few weeks before we arrived my mom broke her hip, and had been in rehab. After that we moved her into a new memory care facility because a bit nicer room opened up there than the one she was in. What that all meant was that she was transferred from the rehab facility in a wheelchair, and the new people didn’t know my mom, so they figured she much be somewhat wheelchair bound. I’m sure the rehab facility told the new place mom could walk, but they don’t know her, so they mainly had her be in the wheelchair.

So, when I got to Colorado Springs and we had a first get together with my mom at a brother’s house, I was pretty sad to see that she arrived in a wheelchair, and she was carried up a few stairs in a wheelchair. It’s sad to see your mom not be able to move around. Once she was all settled in at my brother’s house we started listening to some music, mom loves music, and I asked her if she wanted to dance. Amazingly, she stood up pretty quickly and we danced for about a minute, and then she said she needed to sit back down…but still, success!

The next day we go together again with my mom at a picnic in the mountains. Again my mom arrived in a wheelchair. My mom really loves the mountains, and so I asked her if she would like to go for a walk along the trail. She said she’d love to, and she stood right up out of her wheelchair and I held her hand as we started to walk. At first she took very short, shuffling steps and was really tight. I told her to look at my feet and how I was walking and try that. She did, and she took much bigger steps, but she was still really tight, so I told her to only use muscles she needed. Incredibly, her whole body relaxed, she started comfortably swinging her arms, and along we went…just like normal people! We walked up to a bench, sat for a bit, and then walked back to the picnic. She was ecstatic. My brothers said, “Well, it looks like she doesn’t need a wheelchair,” and for the rest of time we spent together she never used it again. It was awesome!

For my mom it was a case of her forgetting she could walk, and have other people around not knowing she could walk either, so she didn’t walk. Then, once she remembered, she could. This completely corresponds to a yoga philosophy about “Remembrance.” It’s the idea that we are all bright, wonderful, loving people, but we forget that as being the case. But when we remember our true nature, our best selves, it’s an ecstatic, positive experience. I like that this philosophy is all about the idea that it supposed to be that way…we are supposed to forget because remembering is awesome!

With that, do your best to remember you best Self today, and if you’d like to take some time to do some yoga, check out today’s class. :-)