Good Ole Summer Fun

So I grew up playing softball. It was great! It was a release of energy, it was fresh air and a little exercise, it was not-overly competitive, it was good ole dirt, sweat, and fellowship. Nothing beat the Wednesay night church league.

Then I went to college. Four years later, I graduated, played that summer I think, then went off to Fiji...a place where you couldn't find even a baseball in the entire country let alone a softball (seven inch preferably). Oh did my heart just cry out! Those warm, humid summer nights just begged for the old ball and glove and a sandy lot to play in. The closest thing tho, my worn out old glove (that had seen much better days as it had no padding left) without a ball to catch on a grassy rugby field - not even close to the shape of a diamond!

And then I came back to good old Grand Rapids where scenes from my childhood (see previous blog) came flooding back. The hope of softball that first spring and summer made time move so slow. When it finally arrived...my hopes were dashed by the fact that Wednesday night now belonged to Juvie. Let down, heartbreak heard miles away, alas, the pitcher would have to go on without the catcher.

Until this summer. Tonight was our first game. Traditionally speaking we always lost our first game. I even got to play with virtually a new team (and the ones who used to play years ago were taken over by age) and we all sat at the same level. Antwionette even got to play! My new good friend/mentee was joining me in something she loved too! How grand could life get?

It was such a release! The blood flowed, the sweat dripped, the knees got dirty behind the plate (my shins even got hit a couple of times). Oh, the smell of the dirt and the sunset in your eyes. Life is good once again. I drove home tho wishing Don had been there to enjoy it with me, my parents too as they were faithful spectators. Oh the grandness of summer time softball.

Perhaps the greatest thing, my life seemed normal, stress free, and totally relaxed. It was like I revisited those days when softball was life was all about. I feel like my sanity has come back - like the years of toil in college, Fiji, marriage, and everything else now, finally, jelled into my life, as if it finally all belonged there and was meant to be there. Like, I guess, like I'm myself again.

I say that because shortly before I left Fiji, I told a good friend of mine all the things that had gone on in the two years since I arrived and her initial response caught me quite off guard (because everything that had happened was normal up until she said this). She said, "Do you need professional counseling when you get home? ...Beyond the standard debrief?" Shocker to my system...mentally! But I finally feel, after that first game, that it all belongs and it is completely a part of who I am.

I really don't know if this makes sense to anyone reading this...but I don't really care if it does. It's out there and all I wanted to do was share it with the world. That once again, life is good and coming closer to normal sanity.