Well, nothing makes me feel like a whiney asshole who has a lot be grateful for, including just the ability to breathe, than seeing a portrayal of someone who at the height of their physical prowess lost it all….I mean it all…including the ability to move and even breathe on her own.  Yep, God has a way of showing up in my life with messages, I think.

I did go to the gym as I mentioned in my recent post.  I did 20 minutes warm up on the stair stepper at a moderate pace, then weight training, which I haven’t done in probably over a year.  I am going to be one sore chica tomorrow.  Then I completed 45 minutes of cardio at a slow, fat-burning pace, doing one burst to get my heart rate up at the very end.  Anyways, at the gym I go to they have a movie room – like a mini-theater with maybe 15 machines inside.  I thought I was walking into “Game of Play”  whatever that is, but it turned out to be “Million Dollar Baby.”  I’ve seen it before, years ago, but it was especially poignant after my emotional start today.

In the film Hilary Swank portrays Margaret “Maggie” Fitzgerald, a waitress from the Ozarks who from humble beginnings fights her way to greatness as a walterweight boxer only to be injured during a bout resulting in total paralysis below the neck.  It only gets worse as her body deteriorates over time since she can’t change position, eventually leading to gangrene in the leg and a below the knee amputation.

Grim stuff, but just what I needed today.  Suddenly, seeing “Maggie” hooked up to a machine on which she depended for her very breath, I was flooded with gratefulness just to be able to breathe, much less move, clean myself, and the opportunity to use my body.  I sent a silent prayer of thanks up to heaven for all I do have, rather continuing to lament all that is amiss.  Not all is “solved,” but it helped, and the endorphins aren’t bad either.  There is something to be said for getting yourself physically spent to work things out sometimes.

Anyways, just wanted to share.  Now….if I can only continue to be consistent with my efforts, because when I do actually show up to work out or do something physical, I really work it…and it really does shift me.