Life is funny... or not... but it still is...
Ok. I know it's an odd title, but it kind of fits for this one....
Let me start with a story:
It was a warm May afternoon, my class had hiked up the hill to the baseball field for our Gym class. I was covering third base when Amy stepped up to bat. I was a lousy baseball player, everyone knew it, so they put me on third with two other people close enough that they could run in and cover me if anything came my way. Now, I had been paying attention to how people played and I knew that Amy always would hit the ball to a spot about 2/3 of the way from second base to third because she knew I couldn't stop the ball. Well, this time I decided that I was going to catch the ball no matter what, so when I saw Amy coming to bat I got ready. I knew exactly where she would hit the ball, I knew how fast I would have to move to get there after the pitch and I knew that if I could catch the ball that Just maybe I wouldn't be looked at as such a lousy player.
I saw the pitcher wind up, I readied myself to run, glove at the ready. I saw the pitch and I started running. Sure enough Amy hit the ball exactly where I thought she would, I was at the right spot in time to catch it, the ball was heading for me, I reached out with my gloved hand to catch the ball as it was heading directly towards my outstretched glove.... The one thing I didn't count on was the speed and force behind the ball. Being such a lousy player I had no idea exactly what I needed to do to stop the ball. The ball hit my glove on the fingers, bent them back and beamed me in the upper thigh. I had stopped the ball like I wanted and someone else was close enough to pick it up after it bounced off my leg and throw it to first base to get Amy out, but I was there on the ground with a huge bruise already starting to spread on my upper thigh just below the hem of my shorts. I was laying there holding my leg with people starting to gather around me... and I started to laugh. I was in intense pain, from the ball and from the humiliation, but I was laughing. I couldn't stop. The look on the Gym teacher's face made me laugh even harder. She knew how much pain I was in and she also had known that I had done something nobody expected and put myself in the line of that ball. Her face showed a wave of emotions from concern, to pride, to "what the heck were you thinking??" And I laughed.
I felt good! I mean I was in pain, but I had ultimately accomplished what I wanted to do. I had helped get Amy out. I had looked at the circumstances, readied myself for what was coming and I took a chance.
My life lately has been like that. I've seen all these obstacles and opportunities heading my way and I put myself directly in their paths. The difference between my life and the baseball story is that I am much better at the game of life than I am at baseball. Sure, sometimes I miss and get hurt, but at least I learned from the experience.
One of my friends the other day was talking about this and he said, "You never know what you can deal with in life until you go through it." This is very true. I have learned a lot about myself lately.
One example... For those of you who don't know me, I am living with my ex-boyfriend until our lease is up at the end of August. It's not a;ways an easy thing to do, but it's worth it. We thought about getting together again a while back but realized that more than likely we would just slip back into the same routine which frustrated the heck out of both of us at times and we would probably break up again on a bad note and not be friends. Our friendship is important enough to us that we decided we didn't want to take that chance of ruining our friendship. Since we made that decision we have grown as friends in ways neither of us expected. I really like living with him.
But... The other night he went on his first 'date' since we broke up. I knew it was going to happen someday and I prepared myself for it as best I could. I didn't know what sort of feelings to expect. For a bit I was jealous, then angry and unfortunately that night I had a lot of other things on my mind and with him going on a date and with me having nothing to do but sit and stew, his date was a catalyst for my anger so I came home and tore apart the apartment. It took probably 5 minutes to make the apartment look like a tornado had ripped through, but it was the release I needed at that time. I was very careful not to actually break anything and I locked the cats in his room so they wouldn't get hit with any flying boxes or clothes, but I released all my frustration on the pile of dirty laundry in the hallway and all the other stuff that was just in my way. Then I went into my room and fell asleep. When he came home and saw the way I had run the demolition derby through our apartment, he woke me up and we talked.
After venting my frustration on the stuff lying around and sleeping for a bit, I realized that I really wasn't mad at him. I was actually very happy for him. He told me about his date and I wasn't jealous or angry or anything at him. I was just happy for him that he had had a good time and that the guy seemed to be a good person too.
His date had just been a catalyst for all the other frustrations I had had brewing in me to explode. When I looked around at the mess I had made, I started laughing. I laughed at myself, my stupidity, my immaturity and at the way the chaos I had turned our apartment into reflected my life. It only took a couple minutes to gather up all the clothes and right the bookcase, and clothes bins I had overturned. And after that, the chaos was gone. So I'm starting to pick up the stuff in my life I've kicked around for a while and slowly the chaos is going away. I am learning more and more about myself every day and I am again starting to like the person I'm finding hidden in all the mess.
So yeah, Life is funny at times, other times it's not so funny and it hurts, but then I just step back to get a better perspective of what's going on and I see how the little stuff I had been focusing so intensely on and had been getting so frustrated over, is really pretty insignificant stuff, and I start to laugh.
As Readers Digest proclaimed in every issue, "Laughter is the Best Medicine"
I would have to say sleep is just about as good.
So, I've rambled on for a bit, probably more than I should have, and maybe this made no sense to anyone but me, but just consider the source.
Thanks for reading.
JD
Let me start with a story:
It was a warm May afternoon, my class had hiked up the hill to the baseball field for our Gym class. I was covering third base when Amy stepped up to bat. I was a lousy baseball player, everyone knew it, so they put me on third with two other people close enough that they could run in and cover me if anything came my way. Now, I had been paying attention to how people played and I knew that Amy always would hit the ball to a spot about 2/3 of the way from second base to third because she knew I couldn't stop the ball. Well, this time I decided that I was going to catch the ball no matter what, so when I saw Amy coming to bat I got ready. I knew exactly where she would hit the ball, I knew how fast I would have to move to get there after the pitch and I knew that if I could catch the ball that Just maybe I wouldn't be looked at as such a lousy player.
I saw the pitcher wind up, I readied myself to run, glove at the ready. I saw the pitch and I started running. Sure enough Amy hit the ball exactly where I thought she would, I was at the right spot in time to catch it, the ball was heading for me, I reached out with my gloved hand to catch the ball as it was heading directly towards my outstretched glove.... The one thing I didn't count on was the speed and force behind the ball. Being such a lousy player I had no idea exactly what I needed to do to stop the ball. The ball hit my glove on the fingers, bent them back and beamed me in the upper thigh. I had stopped the ball like I wanted and someone else was close enough to pick it up after it bounced off my leg and throw it to first base to get Amy out, but I was there on the ground with a huge bruise already starting to spread on my upper thigh just below the hem of my shorts. I was laying there holding my leg with people starting to gather around me... and I started to laugh. I was in intense pain, from the ball and from the humiliation, but I was laughing. I couldn't stop. The look on the Gym teacher's face made me laugh even harder. She knew how much pain I was in and she also had known that I had done something nobody expected and put myself in the line of that ball. Her face showed a wave of emotions from concern, to pride, to "what the heck were you thinking??" And I laughed.
I felt good! I mean I was in pain, but I had ultimately accomplished what I wanted to do. I had helped get Amy out. I had looked at the circumstances, readied myself for what was coming and I took a chance.
My life lately has been like that. I've seen all these obstacles and opportunities heading my way and I put myself directly in their paths. The difference between my life and the baseball story is that I am much better at the game of life than I am at baseball. Sure, sometimes I miss and get hurt, but at least I learned from the experience.
One of my friends the other day was talking about this and he said, "You never know what you can deal with in life until you go through it." This is very true. I have learned a lot about myself lately.
One example... For those of you who don't know me, I am living with my ex-boyfriend until our lease is up at the end of August. It's not a;ways an easy thing to do, but it's worth it. We thought about getting together again a while back but realized that more than likely we would just slip back into the same routine which frustrated the heck out of both of us at times and we would probably break up again on a bad note and not be friends. Our friendship is important enough to us that we decided we didn't want to take that chance of ruining our friendship. Since we made that decision we have grown as friends in ways neither of us expected. I really like living with him.
But... The other night he went on his first 'date' since we broke up. I knew it was going to happen someday and I prepared myself for it as best I could. I didn't know what sort of feelings to expect. For a bit I was jealous, then angry and unfortunately that night I had a lot of other things on my mind and with him going on a date and with me having nothing to do but sit and stew, his date was a catalyst for my anger so I came home and tore apart the apartment. It took probably 5 minutes to make the apartment look like a tornado had ripped through, but it was the release I needed at that time. I was very careful not to actually break anything and I locked the cats in his room so they wouldn't get hit with any flying boxes or clothes, but I released all my frustration on the pile of dirty laundry in the hallway and all the other stuff that was just in my way. Then I went into my room and fell asleep. When he came home and saw the way I had run the demolition derby through our apartment, he woke me up and we talked.
After venting my frustration on the stuff lying around and sleeping for a bit, I realized that I really wasn't mad at him. I was actually very happy for him. He told me about his date and I wasn't jealous or angry or anything at him. I was just happy for him that he had had a good time and that the guy seemed to be a good person too.
His date had just been a catalyst for all the other frustrations I had had brewing in me to explode. When I looked around at the mess I had made, I started laughing. I laughed at myself, my stupidity, my immaturity and at the way the chaos I had turned our apartment into reflected my life. It only took a couple minutes to gather up all the clothes and right the bookcase, and clothes bins I had overturned. And after that, the chaos was gone. So I'm starting to pick up the stuff in my life I've kicked around for a while and slowly the chaos is going away. I am learning more and more about myself every day and I am again starting to like the person I'm finding hidden in all the mess.
So yeah, Life is funny at times, other times it's not so funny and it hurts, but then I just step back to get a better perspective of what's going on and I see how the little stuff I had been focusing so intensely on and had been getting so frustrated over, is really pretty insignificant stuff, and I start to laugh.
As Readers Digest proclaimed in every issue, "Laughter is the Best Medicine"
I would have to say sleep is just about as good.
So, I've rambled on for a bit, probably more than I should have, and maybe this made no sense to anyone but me, but just consider the source.
Thanks for reading.
JD
posted by JD_612 at 6:21 PM
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