Category: "Perseverance"

The Importance of Jumping on One Foot - Part II

by Helene Louise  

As I wrote in Part I, in the early days of my daughter's rehabilitation, her inability to jump while standing on her right leg was identified as an "incapacity" that needed to be worked on. But as time went on, despite trying hard to help her with that, it was something I eventually replaced with other objectives. Safely getting to the top of a play structure, for example, playing soccer or riding a scooter. 

A few summers later, however, I was walking along the sidewalk as my daughter skipped happily in front of me. At a certain point, I realized that she wasn't skipping in her usual lop-sided way. She was, in fact, skipping using both legs equally!! "Hey, you're skipping with both legs!!", I called out to her. She spun around and with a big smile said, "Yeah, and I can skip backwards too," at which point she started skipping backwards making up a song as she went along about how she could skip backwards. I asked her when she had learned to do that and she answered, "I don't know, I just did."

It appears, that somewhere, in the period between when I was actively trying to help her learn to jump on one foot so many years ago and that moment, she had learned to do the very thing that I had long since given up on. And, it wasn’t because she had been doing targeted exercises or secretly practicing in her room when I wasn't watching. Probably, it was just that by always being active, knowing it was OK to do things differently, having a strong sense of self and knowing how to persevere, her physical abilities continued to evolve, even as I had let go of certain objectives.

When I looked really closely, I could see that there was a slight difference in how she skipped on her right leg as compared to left one. But then again, who’s really going to look that closely to see how equivalent the jumps are on each foot, and how often do we even jump on one foot? Regardless, seeing such unexpected  progress in this case was another "tiny triumph" that I quietly celebrated as I walked along behind my daughter, as she sang, “I can skip backwards, ya, ya, ya...”


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The Importance of Jumping on One Foot - Part I

by Helene Louise  

One of the many "inabilities" that was pointed out in the early years of my daughter's rehabilitation, was the fact that she could not stand on her right leg and jump on one foot. Year after year, it was checked and year after year it was pointed out that she couldn't do it. 

At the time, I was painfully aware of what other kids her age could and were supposed to do—especially since her assessments continuously focused on the abilities that the stroke had taken away as opposed to what was, or might, be possible. So, learning to jump on her right foot was one of the many things that I worked on with her. At the park, in her room, in front of the TV, I held her as I encouraged her to lift her left foot off the ground and try to balance on her right leg. 

But, try as she might, it was very difficult for her to even just stand on her right leg, let alone try to jump. And, the muscles in her foot and leg were so tight that she couldn't easily bend them. So, being able to then bend, balance and jump, did seem impossible. Balancing alone remained a major challenge let alone ever achieving any kind of lift-off. Still, for a long time, I tried just the same. I figured that if I didn't try, then she certainly would never learn to do it and if I did, then at least there was a slight possibility of it happening. 

As she got older and the other little girls in the neighbourhood skipped along on the sidewalk as young girls like to do, my daughter would skip too. But she skipped on the left leg only and then took a step with the right one. It was lop-sided but it didn't matter. She was with her friends, she was happy, she felt good about herself and she was skipping in her own way. 

As a result, I eventually abandoned the project of overcoming that particular "inability". In part, because with time, I gained a little more perspective. Really, aside from maybe mimicking Fred Flintstone stubbing his toe and yelling, "yaba-daba-daiai-aiai" as I sometimes did when I was a child back in the seventies, or trying to hold a pose while playing Twister in someone's "rec room" as we called it back then, how many times have I actually jumped on one foot in my lifetime?  And, of those instances, how many times was it absolutely necessary that I jump on one foot as opposed to moving in some other way? I can’t think of a single instance. 

So, perhaps my daughter was assessed as incapable of jumping on her right foot. But, she is capable of a great number of things, including skipping, even if it is a bit different. And, she is capable of making friends and enjoying a summer day—which is even more important. 


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Kosik the Korean-Speaking Elephant

by Helene Louise  

I read that in a Korean zoo, there is an elephant named Kosik that has apparently learned to say five words in Korean, among them “annyong” or hello and “choah” or good. Elephants are highly social creatures that live in large family groups. They have an elaborate way of communicating with each other by touch, sight and sound. Kosik was apparently isolated from other elephants for many years and it is thought that with his innate need for social interaction, he adapted his sounds in order to strengthen the social association he had with his trainers. 

The most striking feature of elephants is, of course, their trunk, which is a fusion of their nose and upper lip. With a facial structure that is so different from ours, it is not obvious how an elephant might go about making human sounds. However, Kosik wanted to communicate with the people around him, so he found a way. He put his trunk in his mouth and moved his lower jaw in such a way as to overcome his physical limitations—or his “dis-ability”, and make the sounds that he wanted to make back to his trainers.

Something I've regularly faced with my daughter throughout her rehabilitation after a childhood stroke, is the idea that we aren’t all the same and we don’t all have exactly the same capacities. In some cases, our differences are very obvious and in others, less so. Still, in many cases, if there’s something we really want to do, we can find a way, even if it’s a little different, or even if it’s a lot different. In my opinion, that should be good enough – or as Kosik might say, “choah” enough.


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A Little More Light for the Seaweed

by Helene Louise  

Montreal has many wonderul attractions and one of them is the Biodome. Opened in 1992, the Biodome recreates four ecosystems found in the Americas. Visitors can walk through the four sections and see otters at play, capybaras resting on the sand and bats flying overhead. For the more curious, there is even a section where you can touch sea urchins, starfish and other creatures that we don’t often get to see up close. 

The Biodome was created in what was originally the velodrome for the 1976 Olympics. Since then, of course, renovations and updates have had to be undertaken, including the replacement of the 58 skylights that serve as a roof.  I read that the original acrylic skylights are slowly being replaced with newer windows made out of polycarbonate, a material used in the aviation industry. These modern skylights are improving the Biodome’s energy-efficiency, which is, of course, important in managing such a large facility in these times of higher energy costs and greater environmental awareness.  But, as it turns out, these new skylights have also had another unanticipated effect.  Apparently, the new skylights let in significantly more light than the original ones and the beneficial effect of this increase has been noticed even in the growth of the seaweed at the bottom of one of the exhibits.  

 As I explained in my book, what I have learned through my daughter’s rehabilitation, is the value of the little things—how an unexpected moment of kindness and compassion can make the difference between desperation and hope, how, over time, a new idea can make the difference between success and failure. And, how sometimes, the slightest change can have an unexpected impact for the better. 

I love the idea that despite the enormity of the Biodome, a change at the very top of the building is enough to unexpectedly make the life of the seaweed way down at the very bottom of the deepest tank just a little bit brighter.


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The Importance of "Yet"

by Helene Louise  

Over the past decade or so that I’ve been helping my daughter overcome the effects of a childhood stroke, she has often said to me, in face of many different challenges, “I can’t do it, Mama.” And each time, I have always added, “...yet, you can’t do it yet.” It’s a small word but it has had such an enormous impact on our lives. I believe that if we close our minds to the possibility of something happening, then it is much less likely that it will ever come to be. In part, because with a mindset that is negative, we are more likely to miss all of the little opportunities (“fireflies”...) that might otherwise have taken us towards our goal. 

I certainly haven’t been convinced every time that I have stubbornly added “yet” to the end of my daughter’s sentences, especially, since it has not at all been apparent how we could ever get around the obvious  physical effects of her stroke. But I realize now that I didn’t need to see exactly how things would resolve themselves. What I needed to do was stay open to the possibility of progress and keep working towards it. Maybe there are certain things that my daughter will always do differently from others. But, there are also many things that seemed impossible at the outset and which we were told she would never be able to do, which she now has mastered.

“Yet” is such a small word—just three little letters. But when added to the end of a sentence starting with “I can’t...”, it adds a touch of hope and an openness to the possibility of a different, more positive outcome. 


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