First Day Assignment

Okay, I'm doing this Recapturing Beauty 10-Day Challenge. My first task is to write all the ways I am grateful for all the things my body allows me to do, for ten minutes.

And maybe I don't need this as much as I used to. I am just now realizing how grateful I have been in the last several years. When I was young and good-looking I thought about how fat I was, how too white blonde I was...and that was about it. I didn't appreciate my youth.

But now I do, and I appreciate my current age too, oh the joys of old age maturity. I was going to insert a google image here but, wow! There isn't a lot of respect for old age on google. All the pictures aren't very nice.

But back to topic, my minutes are ticking. Okay, maybe I really do need this. Here I go...I am grateful to be able to RUN! Duh. But honestly? The time I most appreciated that was in the middle of my first marathon, realizing I was not on track to qualify for Boston, my hips were locked up, I was in huge pain, I was tired, and I had THIRTEEN.1 miles to go...in the rain. (It was only a short while before that 13 was the absolute farthest I could go before death). I prayed, for the first time, about my running. And God answered, (not to be confused with the Running Gods so often mentioned on Facebook). He allowed me to do better in my head, which Jill was telling me I needed to do. (She was of course, right). He helped me with my thoughts so my legs could work. God connected my spirit with my body in yet another way. I was so grateful my legs continued to work, even if in pain, to be able to run. In that vein I'm thankful for quads and calves and my FEET. I'm really, really grateful for my feet. And my knees. And my arms when my legs are so tired my arms become pistons, in a sense.

Shortly after that I became aware of the majesty of the human body, any human body. I'm not kidding. I started to see it as the creation it is, maybe the way great sculptors see it. I am to this day quite capable of being awed by anybody's body, and not in a perverted way...I just think it's amazing. I can walk upright, I am almost hairless compared to most other animals. Oh, this is getting weird.

I'm thankful for my mind. When it works, it's great. And sometimes it does work. There is nothing so fun as finally "getting" it or seeing it click with someone else.

I'm grateful for my ribs, which are often hard to find, but I've thought before about what they protect, my heart, (which still beats by the way), my lungs, my heart.

I'm grateful for my hands, mostly because of what they can do; I'm grateful for my opposable thumb, yup. I can hold things.

I'm out of time. I am grateful I can see.  I love being able to see, especially light. Even newborns seek the light and I have been very aware of light, or the lack thereof, for as long as I can remember.
I am grateful I can see, and for whomever thought of this crazy idea to help me see even better.