Seeing
with the Heart of a Warrior
by
Lesley Simla
As a student with one toe on the Martial Arts road, I feel
blessed and humbled by my teachers and mentors who are showing me new ways to
see the world about me. I enjoy reading about the Martial Arts as much as I
enjoy my training and can find in that world everything I would like to know,
and would strive to be.
I was reading the September blog post “Warrior Wannabe”, by Andrea Harkins and was
moved by her question, “What would I do to save myself, my own children or
those I love?”.
I met Beth White, a woman who exemplifies the Warrior in
every sense of the word. Beth is completely blind, not vision impaired or
legally blind, but totally so. She is
also a Remedial Massage Therapist,
Mother of three, a wife and an athlete. Her sport of choice is the
Paratriathlon and she competes for her country, Australia.
Beth’s decision to compete seriously was born out of a
desire to challenge herself and continue in the active lifestyle that she
always loved. She also was determined to raise awareness of her condition and
promote the search for a cure. Certainly
choosing triathlon demonstrated that she was not looking for an easy sport in
which to excel.
On the face of it, the triathlon is a combination of three
disciplines requiring totally different skills and muscles following each other
to make one event. There is an open water swim, followed by a bicycle leg and
finishing with a run.. The outcome depends on pacing and strategy. How does one
do this without vision?
This is where trust and faith comes in. The blind athlete
competes with a guide, who acts as her eyes. The guide must be at the same
competitive level so as not to hold the athlete back, but may not finish ahead.
Some blind triathletes just find a guide for a specific race, while others,
like Beth train with theirs. It is similar in many ways to the role of the uke
in assisting the progression of a Martial Artist, the guide lending her eyes to
allow the athlete to develop and improve.
After
leaving the water, they enter the transition area where they need to remove the
swim gear, donning their bike shoes and helmets. If you have ever tried to get dressed in total darkness, you can appreciate
the difficulties.
The
bicycle leg takes place on a tandem, the eyes in front, the athlete behind.
Gearing and steering are up to the guide while the athlete sets the cadence and
the power. Again, imagine traveling at
an average of forty kilometers an hour in some one else’s hands blindfolded!
Verbal communication is now possible and the guide is able to call the turns
and terrain.
After
finishing the bicycle leg there is another transition to running gear and the
final leg begins. On this leg the athletes may choose to be loosely tethered or
run shoulder to shoulder with a light
touch. The eyes are alert to curbs, cracks in the pavement or any other
obstacles. The guide also sees the finish line and encourages the athlete over
it.
Beth recently competed
at the World Triathlon Grand Final in Chicago, where she won the silver medal
in her class.
For Beth and her guide
Melissa, the partnership is deeper than the shared competition. They are friends, and inspire each other.
Their children do sports together and the families are close. The rewards from
guiding go far beyond a medal.
Beth
meets any criteria for a Warrior. She has set a challenge for herself and hopes
through her competition to help the most important people in her life, her
children. Going back to Andrea Harkins’
post gives one definition of a Warrior, that defines Beth in my eyes, “I am
ready and willing to defend that which I love and nothing will ever change
that. It’s not a choice or a decision, it just is”.
She is raising awareness
for the condition that is slowly robbing her children of their sight, and
remains hopeful that a cure can be found through continued medical research.
Beth has accepted her disability, and sees it as making her the
Warrior she is today. She has not accepted that it should limit her dreams and
aspirations for herself and her children.
For more information on
the condition affecting Beth White and her children visit The Oakes Trust website: http://oakestrust.org/
Thanks to Beth White,
her family and Melissa Le Quesne for including us on this journey.
Thanks
also to Andrea Harkins for her enlightening post WARRIOR WANNABE
Sifu Lesley Simla is an instructor in T'ai Chi and
Qi Gong with the Brighton T'ai Chi Club in Brighton Ontario, She is also a
student training with The Snow Tigers Martial Arts Club in Trenton, Ontario.
Thank you, Lesley, for this powerful and inspiring article! Martial artists continue to make a positive difference in the world. Let’s get behind the Oakes Trust and support its work!
Thank you, Lesley, for this powerful and inspiring article! Martial artists continue to make a positive difference in the world. Let’s get behind the Oakes Trust and support its work!
What an inspirational story Lesley, and what an inspirational team Beth and Melissa make.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for this inspiring article. I am so honored that you read what I wrote and wrote such a beautiful story surrounding it.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your encouragement. I am taking stem cells retinitis pigmentosa treatment for getting me improved. Pray for me!
ReplyDelete