One of my More or Less items from from New Years Day was to exercise more. So far, I’m doing it. I’m getting up at least three or four days a week (I know it’s only been two weeks, you’re supposed to be working with me) and going to the gym to swim. And when weather and scheduling allow, I’m taking a thirty minute walk at lunchtime.
I like the pool for a couple of reasons. The main one is that it’s good for my arthritis. It gets my joints moving with minimal impact, which of course means minimal pain. I’m still working up to my level on swimming of laps. But when I started this last year, which is when I also stopped, I started first walking the length of the pool. At first that was all I could do. Now I do a combination of the two.
My favorite mornings are those when it’s early and quiet and the sun is rising up. Through the floor to ceiling walls I see the pink of the morning sky through the barren trees. And it’s best when the music blaring through the rest of the gym is not piped into the pool area. By the way, don’t tell them they haven’t turned it on all year.
In those quiet times, I have a lot of time to think, sometimes to pray, sometimes to sing (to myself) the old hymns of the faith. At least the ones with words I can remember.
It quiets my soul. Sometimes I’m just quiet. Sometimes I’m thinking of things I need to do, need to write, need to say.
In those times I find myself wondering why I ever reach that point in the year when I stop going to the gym. I need and enjoy the exercise and the quiet.
But isn’t that the way it is with our relationship with the Lord? We need and enjoy the time we spend together. But we don’t always get there. Why is it so hard to be consistent with the things that are best for us? The things that quiet us. The things that feed us.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.
Psalm 23:2
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