Basketball is thick in the blood this time of year. And yet, the whims of practice scheduling sometimes mean that my bond with the boys can't be what it was last couple of years. In the end, I'll miss more than 23 practices. This week would've been a week when I could attend exactly one practice on Wednesday. Then a fluke occurrence caused Wednesday's practice to be moved to a time that I couldn't attend.
Time for a pity party? Nope.
Because as it happened, a student of mine had a series of troubles of his own. He ended up falling several assignments behind in his work, and also losing his ride to the library. Tuesday night ended up not being enough time to complete it all. And it was due Thursday. So guess which night ended up being perfect to do a second session? The newly-available Wednesday evening. It felt like extra credit to offer to tutor him at his home since he had no ride.
So often things which appear to be misfortune turn out to be fortune. It's to the point where I can take more and more setbacks in stride, assuming that it's for a greater purpose, even though it's not always obvious what that is.
My three students all ended up passing their classes last semester, and they all asked if they could work with me again. Even though it's a free service for them, it's still a small sign of affirmation that I'm not causing them to get worse... and that's worth something, isn't it? In fact, a fourth student asked for help this week. Word of mouth rules.
The early results suggest that this is one of the better Christmas gift hauls I've received in years. I asked for some kind of warm dress socks to repel the bitter cold floor-temps of the basketball school bus road trips. Six hours of travel this weekend, and not once did the warmth of my feet even pass through my mind until I got home. Meanwhile, Dena's fancy leather jacket has allowed me to use my old winter jacket as a cold-weather running outfit, which I took full advantage of today.
This afternoon's run was at 3:30. Couldn't help but notice that the sun was still bright in the sky at 4:30. We're nearly a full month removed from the winter solstice, and we've already reached the point where we can see the sun on the way home from work. Gotta love it.
There was some project-related stress midway through the week, and I felt like I was pressing. Actually it was blatantly obvious since I found myself fuming about it. Some silly ideas passed through my head, and I was able to dismiss them until after having a good night's sleep. The next day, as is true a great deal of the time, the problem resolved itself.
The incident caused me to wonder how differently I and others would view everyday events if we knew that anger were fatal. I suppose that heart attack survivors could comment on this better than me. But if our survival absolutely depended upon finding a way to enjoy every wave with a smile, I'll bet we could do it. So why wait?
This week I get to supervise a new employee and help him get his career off on the right foot. This has been a gift of an opportunity, a highlight of the days to come.
No comments:
Post a Comment