John M. Bottorff, D.C., C.C.S.T., is a 1981 graduate of Palmer College of Chiropractic and a second generation chiropractor. He is certified in Chiropractic Spinal Trauma. He is a triathlete and an avid cyclist, runner and swimmer. He can be contacted at Bottorff Advanced Chiropractic at 362-8833 or online at www.Cvillepainrelief.com.
Most people in the health and fitness arena are reassessing their position or the state of those they coach. Their reflections provide insight as to the progress or lack there of and how to plan for the next year.
I am a big fan of the many different “A Christmas Carol” productions and as the message of Alexander Pope’s poem, “An Essay on Man,” proclaims, “Hope springs eternal in the human breast.” Just like Scrooge painfully discovers, he is in charge of his destiny. A life can be made right with a change of course and effort.
The article that influenced me the most last year was a double article done on Ann Sexton and her daughter, Hillary Bates. Hillary is both blind and deaf. She has a set of conditions accompanying her condition, including spinal scoliosis, no sense of smell or taste, along with many serious others. To hear it one could easily see Hillary sitting in a chair in an institution counting out her days in darkness. One would be so very wrong.
With her mom’s help, Hillary works out almost every day to combat some of her weaknesses. Hillary lives on her own, making her own meals. How does a person put into words what seems so infinitely impossible? Hillary is clear about God in her life and has an unbelievable concept that she is gifted to be deaf and blind. In fact, Hillary feels so blessed she pays it back by giving time to the church for charity work.
To meet Hillary, Anne and Hillary’s step-dad Jim Sexton is a lesson in patience, kindness and love. What an incredible lamp of lightness.
A sleeper article for me was Karen Campbell. Karen was suggested for her efforts in yoga for the last three or more years. So, I met with this living firecracker. What an experience. Toward the end of the interview I asked how many times a week she went to yoga. One. One time a week. Really? I was all in on an article and it’s on someone who only does yoga one time a week.
Then I learned my most valuable lesson this year. “How much better are you now than when you started,” I asked Karen. Without hesitation she responded, “35 to 40 percent better than when I started.”
All that stuff that my wife keeps hitting me with about, “slow and steady wins the race,” is true. It absolutely changed the way I thought about the long-term effects of effort.
As you make you 2018 goals, remember walking once a week for an hour or a yoga class once a week can have major impact because of two principles; time and effort. Just keep going.
There was a Health Hero I never wrote about, but one that had a profound influence on my life. My father of 94 years, John M. Bottorff Sr. passed away in July. He practiced as a doctor of chiropractic for 56 years.
Dad was raised in the Great Depression and served as a sergeant in the Army Air Corp in World War II in the Pacific Theater. These events served to create a will of iron that, coupled with an absolute intolerance for human suffering and a great set of hands, brought help untold number of hopeless people. He taught me many things, not the least of which is that you often stand as someone’s last bastion of hope: “Just do the best of your ability in the eyes of God. That’s all He asks He will do the rest.”
