Playing With Marbles is For Children

I have been taking therapy for a condition involving my leg. There has been some nerve damage and the result is limited strength and agility. I have been getting help for some time now with little progress. A new program was designed by my helper and I received many useful sessions dealing with proper procedures in correcting with my problem.

The last week took a turn for getting help in improving my balance. The therapist assigned me a room for the treatment I was about to receive. I was surprised to see him enter the session with a small box and a small bucket. I was asked to remove my brace, shoe and socks. Next came the surprise activity. In the box were a dozen or so marbles and some clothes pins.

Much to my surprise he placed the marbles neatly in a line on the floor. He then asked me to pick up the marbles with my bare foot and place them in the bucket. After laughing and thinking this was some kind of joke I was quickly brought back to reality with a firm request to follow the instruction. In order to assist me the therapist demonstrated the procedure I was to follow. He had no difficulty in performing the task to perfection. Me on the other hand could not even grasp the marble and every time I tried I sent the marble flying across the floor.

I asked him what was the sense behind this activity and he gave me a long but thoughtful reason. In essence it was to get some life into that foot which was frozen and to loosen up the bones in my foot to aid me in my balance. For the next half hour I tried and tried to perform the exercise and was unsuccessful I thought. At the end of the session he said I had done well as I had caused some movement in my toes and that was the first step in gaining better balance.

We left as friends and as I looked around I never saw anyone laughing or staring in my direction at seeing an older man playing with marbles . Playing marbles is a game for children is it not ?