Hoping for Better on Another Day

I am having a week of exhaustion, and I'm hoping for a better week next week. This is a week of lethargy, if you will.

I came across something I had saved and enjoyed reading it in my state of mind. I often pull things out of magazines and then tuck them away in all sorts of corners of my life. In my journal, in my planner, in my desk, in a drawer. I then find these snippets and remember small insights that had inspired me before.

In the March 2011 issue of O, results were shared from an 80-year study on the discoveries related to long life.

Here was #3:

“Train Without Pain. You don’t need to enter marathons to have a good long run at life. Forcing yourself to follow grueling fitness regimens can shed inches, but it may not add years. In the long term, you’re more likely to stick with low-impact activities you truly enjoy than rigorous workouts you dread. Moderate swimming, a leisurely bike ride, and hour-long walks with the dog do as much good for your health- and survival – as an eight-minute mile.” (Amanda Schupak)

Well, “Hallelu-yar!” Is what I say!

I always knew something felt wrong when Jillian Michaels would shout at me on the 30 Day Shred DVD:

“You think you can lose weight by taking the stairs and parking far away?! THOSE ARE LIES, PEOPLE! Those are lies of LETHARGY!!”

I haven’t exercised to that DVD in a while.

I do not believe you need to punish yourself in order to feel better.

I was further relieved to read #4:

“Fret a Little. Think good things and good things will happen, right? Not necessarily. Friedman and Martin found that too much optimism could be as detrimental to longevity as high cholesterol and hypertension. Always assuming the best, they say, may leave you unequipped to deal with the worst – such as trauma or illness. A little worry keeps you warmed up for the curveballs life throws.”

Well, there you go. I am very prepared. Worry is no stranger.

But, for tonight, I’ll ask worry to stay away another day. I will only be kind to myself and look forward to next week. Next week, I’ll hopefully have the energy for living life with gusto again.

And since I am sharing some inspiring words of others, how’s about I leave you with yet another piece that speaks to me of gratitude, and fear, and judgment, and kindness.

Written by Naomi Shihab Nye (Lest you get into this beauty of a poem thinking I had the genius to write it. Alas, I did not. It's one of those poems that make you wish you had written it):

Kindness

Before you know what kindness really is
You must lose things,
Feel the future dissolve in a moment
Like salt in a weakened broth.
What you held in your hand,
What you counted and carefully saved,
All this must go so you know
How desolate the landscape can be
Between the regions of kindness.
How you ride and ride
Thinking the bus will never stop,
The passengers eating maize and chicken
Will stare out the window forever.

Before you learn the tender gravity of kindness,
You must travel where the Indian in a white poncho
Lies dead by the side of the road.
You must see how this could be you,
How he too was someone
Who journeyed through the night with plans
And the simple breath that kept him alive.

Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside,
You must know sorrow as the other deepest thing.
You must wake up with sorrow.
You must speak to it till your voice
Catches the thread of all sorrows
And you see the size of the cloth.

Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore,
Only kindness that ties your shoes
And sends you out into the day to mail letters and purchase bread,
Only kindness that raises its head
From the crowd of the world to say
It is I you have been looking for
And then goes with you everywhere
Like a shadow or a friend.