Moments — Love in my heart

I have five days to bench press 200 pounds; it was a goal I set myself back in January when I noticed I could lift 170 pounds with little difficulty — shortly after, while playing outdoor shinny, I fell and jammed my shoulder… which then took six months to recover to a point that my goal seemed achievable again.

As I started to progress and feel the momentum building, I aggravated my other shoulder and tricep. That took six weeks to work through this injury, and as I looked at the calendar, my runway was getting short — and yes, it does scream “metaphor for life” but that’s for another time.

Today I wanted to see how my shoulders were holding up and how close I was to my target — I felt good and slowly progressed as I incrementally added weight to the bar. There comes a point, particularly when you are reaching your limit, when you need a spotter. A spotter is someone who watches over your lift to ensure you don’t crush yourself. In this case, I asked someone I didn’t know to watch and keep my ego from causing undue harm. He was more than happy to help and offered encouragement as I started my lift. I lifted 190 pounds with some help and made a new gym friend. I told him about my target and what I was trying to accomplish, and as he went back to his workout he said, “It’s good to have goals”.

My shoulders felt good and I was optimistic — just 10 more pounds… just 5% more. I only have five days left and as I said before, I’m working with a short runway — very short if truth be told. I will keep it up until the end and we will see.

As I started a light exercise, I caught the eye of another gym dude who smiled, dropped one side of his headphones, came over to bump fists, and said, “Hey”. In our conversation, I asked him if he was ready for 2026 and he looked at me strangely and said that, He only worries about the day he’s in and maybe the day after. “ He then put his hand to his chest and continued, “I live with love in my heart”.

He smiled, bumped my fist again, then went off to continue his workout.

So, with five days left in 2025, today I was reminded that perseverance brings progress, that the world is full of people willing to help and offer encouragement as you make your way, and love is a great energy to carry with you — whatever you happen to be doing.

iamgpe

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