Rising UP!: My Recovery from Multiple Sclerosis, Disability and Despair
By Anna York
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About this ebook
Rising UP! chronicles Anna York's physical, social and spiritual transformation as she makes a remarkable journey:
•From serious disability caused by multiple sclerosis to healing and wholeness
•From excruciating pain to vibrant health in body, mind and spirit
•From suspicion of eastern healing arts as "strange" and "unscientific" to healing with the help of a Tai Chi master and Traditional Chinese Medicine
•From anti-feminist roots to ordination as a handicapped female in a Southern Baptist church
•From being regarded as a "saint" to being rejected by friends because of her "un-Christian" mode of healing
•From being uninsurable for over two decades to being approved for a $100,000 life insurance policy
•From confusion about what has happened to insight and joy
"Tai Chi" and "Qigong" were strange and foreign words to a conservative Christian raised in the Midwestern heartland. Anna York would never have believed that these eastern arts would bring her healing. But they were only two of the many surprises she experienced on her path from severe disability to wholeness in body, mind and spirit. She also discovered Traditional Chinese Medicine, Thai Yoga Bodywork and a diet that would transform her most basic habits of life. As a devout Christian and ordained Southern Baptist minister, she discovered that her God is much bigger than she ever imagined, able to bring her healing from far distant lands and cultures.
Anna's story is a passionate one of loss, despair, faith and hope. It speaks of the treasures of healing and wholeness that can be discovered when we learn to trust and share across the boundaries of race, culture and religion. It also discloses the pain and rejection that can occur when transformation takes place outside one's accustomed social and cultural milieu.
Anna's story is for everyone, especially those who have family members with debilitating trauma, chronic illness and life threatening diseases. It is a story of the triumph of the human spirit over impossible odds--a story that invites all of us to Rise UP! and meet the challenges we face in life with faith, hope and joy.
Anna York
Multiple Sclerosis at Age 19I grew up in an all-white rural community in the Midwest, spending my early years on a farm. When I was nineteen years old, I had my first attack of multiple sclerosis while on a college drama tour.I recovered, but as I finished college and got married, there were more signs of an unstable nervous system. At age thirty- seven I was largely paralyzed from the neck down and spent several weeks in a hospital and nursing home.Over the next fourteen years I experienced repeated attacks, sometimes as many as six a year, resulting in increasing disability and paralysis. I used a wheelchair and then an electric scooter, and we eventually purchased a van with a wheelchair lift. My children grew up helping Mom, pushing me in a wheelchair and managing my scooter. My lower left side became paralyzed and seriously atrophied, with the left calf about one-quarter the size of the right one. I had little control over the left hip and leg and could not flex at the ankle, knee or hip. My doctor attributed these disabilities to lesions on my brain that were documented by MRI.During my illness, I was ordained as a handicapped female in a Southern Baptist church, a position for which I had no role models and for which I had to forge a new path of ministry.At one point I was in such serious condition that my pastor came to help prepare me to die. I thought there was nothing I could do to help myself except follow doctor’s orders and pray with all my heart for a miracle.A Remarkable HealingMy oldest son took me to Tai Chi class and introduced me to Tai Chi master Bruce Moran at a time when things seemed hopeless. For me, going to Tai Chi class was about as bizarre as going to the moon. As a Christian, I was suspicious of Eastern practices, but I saw that the movements were slow and healing, and I decided I would try it. I sat in the back row of the class on a stool and waved my arms because I could not stand for any length of time.On March 31, 1996, at a Tai Chi class on Palm Sunday, Sifu Bruce used his amazing skill in bodywork to unparalyze my left side. He did it in twenty minutes. He said, “The problem is not in your head, it’s in your hip. I just released your sciatic nerve and lined up your bones so they can function.” Who ever heard of anyone doing a thing like that! Nevertheless, the nerves in my left side began to turn back on. This remarkable experience set me on a new path of healing that has changed every part of my life.As I began the long, difficult process of rehabilitating my body, I discovered that getting well was much more difficult than getting sick. I have chronicled my adventures in Rising UP! My Recovery from Multiple Sclerosis, Disability and Despair.Life with Joy!Today I am healthy and fit. I stand straight and tall, no longer bent and collapsed as I was before. I fit into my wedding dress--well, almost!. I walk with a limp that is improving as I continue restoring function through daily exercise, Tai Chi and bodywork. I enjoy travel, hiking with my trekking poles and working out. I recently took a trip to the Gobi Desert in China and had a long ride on a camel!I used natural therapies alongside of traditional approaches for a period of years but have taken no drugs since 1998, maintaining my health since that time by natural means.Life is good. I live a normal life, currently making my living by doing private educational consulting and tutoring, in addition to my writing. I have put the skills I learned in recovery into practice by teaching Tai Chi Tao and Qigong classes, specializing in work with those who have disabilities. I have four married sons and four grandchildren and look forward to the future with joy.
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