Yesterday, September 27, 2021, was the last day 
of prescribed cardiac rehab.  They tell me that 
I am doing excellently.  The only admonishment 
given was that I should keep in mind not to work 
out as hard as my spirit tells me I should but to 
strive to be within a range and become more 
moderate than my habits of a lifetime.  

To mark this, a poem: 

Pushed and Pulled
by Michael Doyle

I pushed
I pulled
I strained
For every inch of ground
I have ever gained
This is what they taught
To live life as it is caught

However hard the roads
That I have been shown
By every struggle
I have more than grown
Becoming the all of me
Pushed for in the possibility
Making of life, my reality

Always seeking higher ground
However seldom it might be found
Pushing to be just a little more
As we swam hard for the shore
Hoping we might reach it
To live another day and teach it
To be all that life allows to be

Never heeding that enough is enough
It now feels it's surely a bluff
How can it be that living moderately
Is the way to excel in my sufficiency
To do within a range is to do good
Why more is less remains misunderstood
At last, time has brought this change

I pushed
I pulled
I strained
For every inch of ground
I have ever gained
This is what they taught
To live life as it is caught

(c) September 28, 2021  Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved