Feeling Nice
I exercised today for the first time in almost a year. It wasn’t much. An hour on the stationary bike, a set or two of curls with some embarrassingly light dumbbells. But it was enough to make my deconditioned body all noodly, an it was enough to get my endorphines flowing.
I was reading a book of poetry while I was exercising, because I am going through menopause: “Blessing the Boats,” a compilation of poetry by Lucille Clifton. I’ve mined this book for inspiration before, and usually it gives me something. While my poetic voice is not similar to Clifton in style or competence, I find that reading talent is enough to give me some sort of ridiculous nugget.
For the first time in nearly three years, I had an idea for a poem. And then another. TWO IDEAS FOR POEMS. Nothing short of miraculous.
I guess it goes to show that my steady intellectual diet of graphic novels and blogs was not exactly what I needed. There’s only so much poetry in Batman, and it took a book with four poems about Superman for me to realize that.
So anyway, I’m feeling pretty good about myself in general, and I guess there’s a lot of benefits to exercise besides excellent cardiovascular health.
A quarter century is almost over, and I’m not sure where all the time went.