Count your Blessings!

 My resolution for 2010 is simple and straightforward: to play sports injury-free. Running with bad knees is no fun, as with swimming with bad shoulders.

This year, should be a great year for me too. I can feel it inside me. I'm so grateful that I'm at the time and day that I could still do whatever I could be doing without feeling tired, or sick. That I'm able to do them. I was swimming at the local Y a few weeks back and there was this couple. At first I thought they were frolicking and being naughty from the way they held on to each other, and then I realized that the girl was blind. I tried to ignore them when the guy was directing her towards my direction. They were coming closer and closer until the guy bumped into me, "oh, somebody's there? sorry." He, too, was blind. This time I looked at them. To be blind and not able to see where he's going while swimming. I almost feel ashamed for wanting better goggles because they fog. I swam my heart out and just enjoyed the feeling, feeling grateful to God for my eyes, for seeing.

Then yesterday went for a walk with my parents. I was feeling sucky, like, real sucky that I couldn't run. I felt that my knees are just taking a goddamned too long of a time to heal and I just can't wait to run! Then, like something out of a movie, I saw a couple walking and that man wore a metal prosthetic. He was limping slowly. He probably could never run, or run as good as he could if he had two legs. Two legs - it's all that matters in the end and I'm complaining because of what - injured knees? 

 Of course, there are days when I feel sad over the era of my 'sporting' days, when I could tempo run for almost two hours, or could play the entire field hockey game under the scorching 3pm sun, when I could do both types of splits and stretch till I was bend over backwards. I probably couldn't now, unless I worked really hard at it, but then again, does it really matter? 

So really, I am just grateful. For everything. If I think I wasn't that pretty, there's some other girl our there with acid scarred face. If I felt stupid, there's someone out there who suffered brain damage from an accident. I remember this one proverb that goes something like this, "I cried because I have no shoes, then I met a boy who has no legs."

  Being healthy should be everyone's resolution every year. And it's not just how far we can run or how often we work out, it's also about making good dietary choices, as well as making an effort to become a better person inside. So feel grateful that you can still feel the sun on your face when you run, or the pounding of your heart during a torturous climb.

Because, if you ever have any bad days regarding your workout or your fitness capabilities, remember that you can, and some others can't.