I reached for my glass, happening to glance in the direction in which I was reaching, and looked. Then I stared. Then I grinned.

My bicep was showing.

Bat wings be damned! I had actual BICEP and it was FLEXED and SHOWING!

The angels heralded, there was ticker-tape falling from the sky, and Macy’s blew up the Wonder Dog balloon! Sweet Polly Purebred swooned!

For the last few months I have been participating in yoga classes with a friend. I have never done more planks and downward dogs in all of the years prior to 2018 than I have done in the last few months. One of the classes we refer to the instructor as a “sadistic motherfucker” and we are Golem, “We hates to go to class! But we likes how we feels afterwards!” These classes have us wiping down with a towel at least a few times throughout the hour, and by the end we’re feeling jelly-like and completely spent, and yet giddy.

Mostly because we survived the class for another week.

I have found muscles that are in desperate need of being stretched and others that I’m needing to modify to the deepest stretch possible. Each discovery leaves me dazzled in wonderment. “How is THAT muscle so tight? How is THAT muscle so stretchy!”

But, each class brings me incrementally closer to super-heroine strength. Maybe I’m exaggerating – but I choose to believe that’s true.

As I thought about this post, and wrote it, and edited it, and thought about it more, I considered the other aspects in life that have been incremental in nature. I have lost 70 pounds over six years and kept it off for four. That wasn’t an overnight success by any stretch of the imagination.

Mr. Muse and I have been together for nearly 22 years and will have been married for 19 of those years next week. Most decidedly NOT overnight.

Our eldest nephew graduated from High School this month and he’s growing up. Born the year Mr. Muse and I were married, it’s been nearly two decades… Want to ask me about how proud I am? Come on… let me brag about this kid!

We’ve lived at this house, this home, for ten years this year, and there is still so much work to do, to repair what the previous owners did, and didn’t, do.

What we forget in the bombardment of media, is that change is often incremental. It’s exponential like the lily pad question. Unlike CSI and NCIS solving crimes within a 1-hour episode, and it appears like a 24-hour period, these things take time.

So, I looked at my biceps. And then I noticed towards the end of the week that my thighs looked thinner. I’d had “thigh space*” for over a year – maybe even two, but they looked different. Stronger.

Strength is good.

• ”Thigh Space” is NOT attainable for everyone – it has to do with body structure and a whole lot of other things – do NOT starve yourself or work out until you drop because of this. I DO NOT ADVOCATE UNHEALTHY LIVING! Seriously, I ate whatever I wanted.

The Amusing Muse is a writer, yogi, and beekeeper living in Southern Wisconsin with her best friend and husband of nearly 22 years. They have recently planted a variety of trees on their property to avoid future problems with Oak Wilt, and will be renting a room at the end of the month, which will be a big change as they’ve only living with each other for the last 19 years.