Hard Work Never Hurt Anybody

It was definitely a busy Monday today.I missed my workout time with my buddies and found myself faced with the gym after work. I rolled in close to six o'clock to find Sylvia finishing up her workout. As I stood there chatting with her, I was so tempted to turn around and head home.   All I wanted was my comfy chair, conversation with my husband, and dinner.  I wanted no part of that treadmill.

"I don't want to do this Sylvia." I said.

She said, "Just get it done. You will feel better."

Simple words, but oh so true.   I remember hearing my Mema saying to me when I was a child, "Hard work never hurt anybody." It is a theme from that generation who had to grow up tough during the Great Depression.  She is the next to youngest of six children whose Daddy died young from blood poisoning and left her mother alone with the children to raise and a farm to contend with, right smack in the middle of the Great Depression.  Mema learned from an early age that everyone had to pitch in so that the family was able to survive, in fact she used to tell us stories of pulling weeds from the strawberry fields when she was just a little thing, probably not even in school yet. No one back then had to worry about diet or exercise.  They had fresh farm food and plenty of hard work to burn off any calories they took in.

Fast forward to now, me standing in the gym, needing a workout because I sit at a desk all day to do my work.  I buy all of my food at the grocery store that someone else has grown and if I get real squirrely, I don't cook at all and pick up food that someone else has worked hard to prepare.  And here I was whining about not wanting to exercise, shame on me.

I got on the treadmill, turned on my music, and picked up my feet. Soon I had a good sweat going and when I walked out of the gym, all the jittery Monday feelings were gone. Mema is right. Hard work never hurt anybody.