I didn’t forget my goal was to play Haydn in the “Timisoara Festival in September 2012. For this, my legs were secondary. First, I had to reconnect my brain and my arm because the hand and the fingers will hold the bow. Priority to the maracas, the child rattle. All theses instruments – old as mankind – were bound to cross the centuries, even millennium for a reason. They were gonna help me to find a rhythm and to keep it, to nuance.

I seized the toy with the handle and I noticed a first mistake. Even if I felt nothing, I knew I grabbed too hardly and the plastic crushed under my fingers. Be patient and try again. I opened my fingers and this time, it was a little better. Now, I was gonna try to move it in rhythm but my arm did exactly as it pleased. It overplayed my gestures or instead, it scarcely moved. I focused all my attention on this so tiny, little gesture: moving the maracas regularly. Normal people didn’t know how these tiny moves of life were precise and precious. People who had been in the same situation I was will understand the importance of all this. The professional rehabilitaters were often too generalist. Each had to adapt to his particular disability and his possibilities to recover according to his previous skills. This token book aims at telling disabled people: don’t be desperate, you can get out of this. And to people in good health: enjoy your good health, one of the most precious treasures.