It still blows my mind that I can’t feel 75% of my body, and every spring there is a rebirth of that longing, an awareness that rises to the surface of how alone and trapped I sometimes feel. I feel it every season, in different ways, but for some reason spring is the most intense. It throws me, and I find myself nostalgic for the past and yearning for the future, wishing that I could have these moments of joy, pleasure and expression back in my life; these moments in your body, in the sensuousness of life that ground you, empower you, release you and ignite you.

Two research items to report today. The first a cool study from the Mark Tuszynski lab on how injured brain cells revert to a genetically immature state and if that state is maintained using certain stem cell grafts, the brain cells can be encouraged to regenerate. The second is a study starring Ian Burkhart (who help U2FP's CAN push through $3M for SCI Research in Ohio last year) who has a high cervical injury and a chip implanted in his brain.

"What is the goal here? What are we trying to do?...and to me it still is and has always been to basically restore near normal function to people that have chronic spinal cord injury…that’s what I wanna talk about….what I’ve learned is that I have to start with that. And I have to start with the following sentence, which is: I believe that’s possible and what I wanna do is to be a part of making that happen.” This is an excerpt from Jason and Matthew’s interview with Dr. Murray Blackmore from Marquette University

I ran in the Wings for Life World Run Sunday. There were 77,103 of us in 104 countries around the world, each alone due to prudent social distancing, but all together for the cause of raising money for spinal cord injury research. We raised $3 million for SCI research! This is a cool race. First off, everybody starts at the exact same time. 1 p.m. in Paris, 7 p.m. in Beijing. Here on the West Coast, that’s 4 a.m., dark and solitary.