The Old Man and the Bat...

I love watching Joe play baseball when it goes well.  I love that little grin and wink he sends my way before he hits.  I love the smell of outdoor baseball clinging to his uniform at the end of the game.  Last night was one of those perfect nights.  He made a couple nice hits and a couple nice catches.  All-in-all a good night on the field.

That doesn't stop it from hurting the morning after. 

Aging plainly sucks.  There are more aches and pains, more activities to consume spare time, and the grief that marks every major life change - loved ones dying or becoming ill, kids growing up and moving away from home, unplanned and unexpected separations.

But there's something beautiful about it all too.  Stephen Curtis Chapman sings the line "I will be here to watch you grow in beauty and tell you all the things you are to me...  I will be here."  I've watched him grow in beauty and I try to tell him every day what I see and what he is to me. 

He gives me that same simple gift that somehow keeps us attached to our past while living our present. 

I have a feeling we'll one day bury that old man with his bat.  He wouldn't want it any other way.
---------------------------------------------
Those gems of wisdom that circulate in emails now and then annoy me.  Like I don't get enough mail that must be handled without having forwards!  There's one I love though and I recall it often:

People come into your life for a reason, a season, or a lifetime. When you figure out which one it is, you will know what to do for each person.


When someone is in your life for a REASON . . . It is usually to meet a need you have expressed. They have come to assist you through a difficulty, to provide you with guidance and support, to aid you physically, emotionally, or spiritually. They may seem like a godsend, and they are! They are there for the reason you need them to be.


Then, without any wrong doing on your part, or at an inconvenient time, this person will say or do something to bring the relationship to an end.


Sometimes they die.


Sometimes they walk away.


Sometimes they act up and force you to take a stand.


What we must realise is that our need has been met, our desire fulfilled, their work is done. The prayer you  sent up has been answered. And now it is time to move on.


When people come into your life for a SEASON . . .because your turn has come to share, grow, or learn.


They bring you an experience of peace, or make you laugh.


They may teach you something you have never done.


They usually give you an unbelievable amount of joy. Believe it! It is real! But, only for a season.

LIFETIME relationships teach you lifetime lessons; things you must build upon in order to have a solid emotional foundation. Your job is to accept the lesson, love the person, and put what you have learned to use in all other relationships and areas of your life. It is said that love is blind but friendship is clairvoyant.

There's something true in that and comforting in the notion that all things don't need to last forever to have value.  The one thing that's not true?  Love isn't blind.  It is patient and kind and accepting and longing for the beloved.  I'm glad.  What's good about blind acceptance? 

And if it were true that friendship is clairvoyant, we sure could take pains to prevent friends from hurting us.