Soccer Practice

Cold, Windy and Damp are the best ways to describe this Saturday morning.  So I sit in my vehicle – instead of watching from the metal bleachers - and watch my 7-year-old at soccer practice.  Usually there are other adults to talk with and other sounds to keep my mind occupied, but this morning from the quietness of this vehicle, I let my mind wonder.  I wonder what has happened to those 7 years since this boy of mine was born.  It feels as though only a few months ago he was spitting up and laughing afterwards….only a few months ago he was crawling.

I now see him dribbling the ball, doing his exercises with the other players and kicking the ball more accurately than myself.  I see his motivation to get better at the game.  I see the excitement he has to interact with his friends and teammates.  I don’t know the right word for this….priveledged……blessed…..lucky…..I’m not sure what the word is, but I feel like I have just witnessed something.  If I would not have watched him – with all of myself – this morning, I would have missed more of those 7 years. 

Multi-tasking had been the crux of my daily life for many years now. I can’t explain how great I feel, that I was able – for a short period of time – to put down all the other issues I usually have on my mind and just watch my boy at soccer practice. 

When was the last time you just sat and watched someone you love do something that they love?

A beautiful day

Yesterday was not exactly what I’d call a beautiful day. 

Don’t get me wrong the weather in Kansas City was awesome, perfect weather for us to browse around at a small pumpkin patch at a church in town and buy a few pumpkins to carve later in the week.  The weather was awesome enough to play outside once we got home, also awesome enough for me to walk around the neighborhood in shorts and a shirt after sunset with our children to look at the Halloween decorations that many of our neighbors display.

I was able to have coffee with a friend that I do not spend enough time with.  We were able to catch up and then be there for each other during a tough time in my life yesterday morning and from talking to him later, it was a tough time in his life as well. 

I was able to watch my children get balloons made for them at Red Robin; a Heart, a Monkey and a Shark.  The smiles on their faces were priceless.  I got to hear my youngest daughter laugh like she was going to stop breathing when all three of them were throwing balloons at each other during the car ride home. 

I was blessed to receive numberous text messages, emails, and calls from people who are close to me.  All of them letting me know that they are here for me and my family. 

I also got to eat a wedding cake from the weekend with a couple of fellow workers and hear about the wedding itself; a good story of a  couple of people starting a new life with each other.  I also split lunch with the two of them just prior to that, discussing things that had transpired at work since one of them had left for vacation. 

I also was blessed to spend time with my wife.  I am sane because of the love she has for me.  It is much easier for me to care for other people and see the good in people, because of the good she sees in me.

Our family did get some bad news yesterday, but somehow the day wasn’t controled by that news. 

I guess it really was a beautiful day, and as Bono would say, “Don’t let it get away”.

I won’t let it get away God, I won’t.

…running through my mind…