This will be one that my father will be proud of....
I distinctly remember being at the home plate of one of our lovely softball fields in good ole Athens Texas for my first t-ball softball league practice.... there was this stand with a ball on top. I remember being completely scared that I would embarrass my family and myself by swinging and missing that ball. I had failed so many times at home with my father at this very thing---- hitting the ball OFF of the tee. I remember the laughter that would ensue after I would give it my all and then open my eyes, only to see that annoying ball still sitting patiently almost dauntingly on it's stand. . .
So there I was, first practice... it was me, the ball, and the bat. So, in order to save myself from embarrassment, I slowly, with much concentration, swung my bat straight at that darn ball.... only to miss it.
Eventually I got it, as we all do. I had good coaches around me that taught me right. I practiced to prove myself.
Then, the next year, the ball was not standing still.... but it was moving AT ME! ! !
And I thought the tee was daunting! HA!
It was about then I knew I was not quite made for the game of softball.
I wasn't the 'pinch hitter' by any means, I had quite a few strike outs and then a few lucky hits... I wasn't a complete failure.
All of this to say, today I was thinking about how I wish someone would just throw me a strike so I could hit the ball out of the park and regain my confidence as well as the others around me. But the deal is, we all have to learn how to hit at curve balls as much as strikes.
Now I am no professional at any of this baseball lingo or even the game itself, but I am a professional at hit and misses in life, and admittedly a few amazing home runs.
We teach young kids how to hit the ball off of the tee not so that there will be professionals up to bat against a ball on a tee, but we teach them that so they know the feeling of the ball on the bat. My dad always use to say "feel the ball on the bat" before I even swung.... It was that feeling that gave me power to swing and get that ball away from me... And as the ball came towards me, he kept saying the same thing ... "feel the ball on the bat", even if I didn't feel it often when it was being thrown to me, I remembered the feeling of the contact with the ball on the bat that ran through my arms.
In life, we grow up knowing how to just get the feeling of success... if you are as blessed as I am, I had parents that set the ball on the tee in my life and let me feel the power in the bat, and then slowly helped me hit moving targets along the way... annnnd they helped me remember that you don't always get a homerun.
As I have gotten older, I have had my hit and misses, and I have had some great hits that set my team up for a win.... but I am learning that not every strikeout has to define me, nor does every homerun. Sometimes when all you want is a perfect pitch, you are given curve balls. But the reasons the pros are the pros, are because they have learned how to swing at either pitch and still be able to hit the ball.
I'm no professional in life yet, but I guess you could say I had to go back to the basics and just learn how to "feel the ball on the bat". I'm re-learning alot about myself and learning some new things about life and how it works, but after all, the pitches keep coming my way... it's my decision to swing at the ball or not.
After all, who has ever hit a homerun without swinging their bat?
Posts
