Some of you will be aware of my work with disabled athletes and Martial Artists.
I'd like to share one of my favourite poems, by Lois Keith, a wheelchair bound writer who has this amazing take on the power of language.
If this isn't the "JU" gentleness in Martial Spirit, I don't know what is!
Tomorrow I am going to rewrite the English Language.
I will discard all those striving ambulist metaphors
Of power and success
And construct new ways to describe my strength.
My new, different strength.
Then I won't have to feel dependant
Because I can't stand on my own two feet.
And I'll refuse to feel a failure
When I don't stay one step ahead.
I won't feel inadequate if I can't
Stand up for myself
Or illogical when I don't
Take it one step at a time.
I will make them understand that it is a very male way
To describe the world.
All this walking tall
And making great strides.
Yes, tomorrow I am going to rewrite the English Language
Creating the world in my own image.
Mine will be a gentler, more womanly way
To describe my own progress.
I will wheel, cover and encircle.
Somehow I will learn to say it all.
Lois Keith
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