Life has been crazy. I’ve wrestled with sharing my personal story publicly, I question peoples’ interest in my story, my time has been scarce and I’ve been trying to meet the demands of parenthood and personal priorities the best I can.

Lately, I’ve been waking up early and my mind rolls through all of the good, the bad and the ugly of my life. It’s like my mind doesn’t want me to forget everything we’ve been through. This morning, it started at about 5am so I got up and decided to write, re-write and edit some new blogs, old blogs and unfinished blogs.

There are so many stories to tell. Some make the tears well up, some put a smile on my face, some make this mama bear feel pride and others will never make the page. So I guess as a little catch up, I’ll start with the marathon of life.

One of my biggest triumphs last year was deciding to run in the Royal Victoria Half Marathon, training for it and then actually doing it. As part of my personal journey I committed to every training run for the 20 week program and I set a goal of running it in under two hours.

Alongside the training, the marathon of life was happening on full tilt – challenge accepted!

Bear’s world at work was busy, huge change-over and training for William’s care team became a priority, my oldest tore her ACL right before a packed summer of elite rugby – why her? – William’s tone was unruly, new processes for getting William around needed to be implemented as he was getting too heavy to carry, my dad was dealing with some health challenges and changes were happening around our farm.

Life is a marathon of up-hills and down-hills and like all terrain, it’s rarely flat and easy. But you know that feeling when you get to the top of any hill or mountain and you can see below you – that feeling exists as you get through the hurdles in different areas of life. The feeling of sighing some relief that you made it or got through it is such a well-earned release.

Last year was a marathon but I’m happy to report that we are still trucking along. William has a beautiful care team with some new faces – all of whom have been a fabulous addition. Mimi Pie is about 3 months into post-surgical recovery and continues to inspire me with her perseverance and positivity. William is all sorted out with transitions and getting him around. My dad has had a long road of recovery but there are more good days than bad now. And things around our farm are settled.

Alongside the life marathon, I did complete my half marathon in just under two hours and I didn’t miss a training run. The cherry on top was that William was able to make the trip to see me cross the finish line.

Let’s see what this next year’s leg of the marathon looks like.

~ Keely

Keely is an author and advocate for children living with disabilities. She lives on Vancouver Island in beautiful British Columbia, with her husband, her son William who has cerebral palsy, her two daughters and several four-legged friends.