Growth

Let me talk about muscles for a moment. How do muscles grow? First, there's the pain. You run. Or push. Or pull. Or swim. Or anything. You tear your muscles. You wound them in a million ways. At this moment you are weak. Run 15 miles. Legs shake, vision blurs, chest heaves. You are weak. You are not strong. Growth requires you to be weak. Growth requires you to hurt.

But then you give your body what your body needs. 

Food. Proteins. From many sources. 

Fats. Good ones. Clean ones.

Rest. Much of it. In many ways.

Then what happens? A soma-spiritual, psycho-biological miracle.

Your muscles adapt.

Change.

Strength. 

Growth.

You have more strength, more capacity. You do what you previously considered impossible. You withstand what formerly brought you to your knees. And soon, you do this easily.

My legs don't wake up until I've run about 5 or 6 miles. There was a time I could not run 3 miles. Running 3 miles used to make me ache and moan for a day or so. Running 3 miles at my absolute hardest now leaves me out of breath for no more than 10 minutes. I won't be satisfied with my day unless I fit in another workout that evening. My work capacity increases. No isolated phenomenon -- it's been repeated trillions times. You can do this yourself. Destroy a part of yourself. Provide yourself with nurture and rest. Watch as you grow and become stronger. Watch as you change.

Is your spirit so different?

You've been hurt. Heartbreak. I have a friend who supports his family. 6 people living on 2 incomes. The other income is a parent who makes less than half his paycheck. He's 2 years into a 30-year mortgage. It's not his home. He's his family's bailout package. He lost his job. You've been hurt. The crutch you've leaned on to find yourself snapped. And of course it snapped. You're a 320 lb. soul leaning on a costume cane.  Expecting that support to last would be to indulge yourself in a stupendous delusion. You've fallen. But you can get up. That's up to you.

You've experienced the pain. Will you give yourself the nutrition and nurture you need to grow, to change? Or will you wallow in your spiritual wrack longer?

Run. Run because it hurts. When my heart last broke, I thanked God for the hill behind my house. 3 blocks long and steep. I ran sprints up and down that hill until I fell to my knees and puked. I ran sprints until my body hurt more than my soul. And then I drank my protein. I slept off the aches. And my body grew strong. I realized that my body was getting stronger and my soul must pull its own weight in return. So I sought discipline, dispassionate intelligence and openness of heart, innocence in my optimism and wisdom in my judgment. I grew. I changed.

I can still grow. I can still change. 

I will always have room to grow. I will always have room to change.

So yeah. I'm talking about muscles. And a little more.