Do Your Best, Always

Last night I felt so hopeful, so inspired. Then I had a severe pain wave hit. It was intense, lasted about an hour and a half, and was so bad I cried out several times. Then the waves disappeared and it was just the dull pain. Woke up this morning with the dull pain, then had a pain wave that lasted about 45 minutes. Hope shatters when this happens, yet I know it will ease--it always does.

The thing is, if this is the life God has destined for me, that doesn't mean I have to wallow in self-pity. Yes, I do wallow in self-pity--that's my nature, but I still keep the eye on the prize. In between all this, I force myself to get out of bed and move around. Now I may be moving at Tim Conway's shuffle pace, but I move. I have just over 5000 steps in today, and that's pretty wonderful considering that I have accomplished nothing and felt like garbage all day long.

Why do I do that? Because I'm worth it. No, I'm not jogging, not running, not walking a fast clip. I'm not flying in the air on my rebounder, I'm not doing step aerobics, and I'm not lifting weights. I slowly put one foot in front of another and move my body--because I can. It helps, too. If you've ever been in bed all day you know how stiff you get, how your body aches. Moving around helps tremendously.

So I may not even be able to do an easy Leslie Sansone walking DVD today--not even close, but I do my best. I'm proud of that.

So we may feel like, um, poop, but there's always something we can do. Always. Hope may shatter, but the spark is always there and doing whatever we can keeps that spark alive.

I've exercised today to the best of my ability. Have you?