June 23: adrenaline and endorphins

  This morning started out well enough.  I woke up early, read for an hour, and ate breakfast before everyone else came downstairs – peaceful.

 

  Then I discovered Lake Charlie, a newly formed body of pee in our house.  It made me sad because our dog Charlie is getting old; it grossed me out because there was so much pee to clean up; it made me mad that there were pieces of kids games in the new lake; it made me feel guilty for not keeping a better house with no kids' game pieces on the ground. 

 

  Little by little my good mood was choked by the talons of stress.  And it's weightlifting day.

 

  On my way to the gym, I coaxed myself into feeling frustrated; I encouraged it to turn into anger so that I'd have an emotion other than helplessness to use in my workout.  When I got to the Y, I had INXS's "Kick" in my head: "Sometimes you kick, sometimes you get kicked."  I made up my mind to not let life kick me.  I got myself good and peeved, then cardio-ed it out.  During my workout, Rascal Flatts's "Stand" came around in my playlist: "On your knees you look up, decide you've had enough; you get mad, you get strong, wipe your hands, shake it off, then you stand."

 

  So when cardio was done I had the endorphins I needed to get me through weightlifting.  Hoo boy, it's a good thing I did, because it was a good one today.  The exercises defy words; suffice it to say that every last article of my clothing was drenched.  My muscles got such a workout that at one point I could only say "Help" and trust that my trainer would save me.

 

  Thank goodness for music and endorphins.

 

   AND the universe seems to be applauding my efforts to fight the good fight.  Since I started typing this, I had a phone call from someone I love who sounds happier than I expected (yay!); I found my set of keys which went missing yesterday (woohoo!); and someone returned a toy they'd borrowed (much to the delight of my youngest).

 

  My dog is still getting older; housework is still monotonous; and there are still a million things to do.  But today I was strong and self-reliant, and there's a whole day just waiting to be made good.

 

~Karin