Indomitable

Met a young lady in kickboxing class who looked like she was 15 years younger than she told me she was. .  She was the most fit in the class by far and was adding moves and jumps when most of the rest of us were sucking wind trying to keep up.  I was surprised to find out that she had suffered a stroke a year or so ago.  She didn’t just recover, she was kicking some serious butt!  She was lean, striations in her delts and all.  Reminded me of an old poem by a guy named Henley.  There’s lots of others who I’m privileged to have on y friends list like her.  I post this in her honor and yours.

Invictus
by
William Ernest Henley. 1849–1903

OUT of the night that covers me,
  Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
  For my unconquerable soul.
  
In the fell clutch of circumstance
  I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
  My head is bloody, but unbowed.
  
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
  Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
  Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.
  
It matters not how strait the gate,
  How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
  I am the captain of my soul.