Sometimes life reminds me of a baseball game. There are all sorts of pitches and sometimes we feel like we get more than our fair share of curveballs and sinkers. The balls come at you hard and fast. At times you want to duck, call for a pinch hitter, take a time out! Unlike baseball, in life you are always at bat. Keep your eye on the ball and swing hard!
I don’t care what stage you are at in your life, whether you are young, just starting out, or old and looking to retire you make plans. You have a vision of how things are to be and how you’re going to make that all happen when suddenly life throws you a fastball you weren’t expecting. You swing and get a piece of it. Not a total loss, but you are far from out of the park. You’re lucky it doesn’t foul into the stands, but you don’t strike out. You never strike out. You’re always at bat!
You may go weeks, sometimes months and feel like a power hitter every time you’re up to bat. Everything is going great. Life is good. Can’t wait to get up in the morning and don’t want to go to bed at night. Then all of a sudden the ball isn’t spinning your way. You get pitched a curveball and another and you are suddenly in a batting slump. Nothing is going as planned, you worry, you worry about worrying and you wonder if you are ever going to rise out of this one, but you do. You may not be hitting them over the fence, but eventually you start hitting again. A single, a few doubles, maybe even a triple once in a while. Not all good, but better.
Once in a while life pitches us one impossible ball after another…..fast, curve, knuckle, sinker….there is no time to act, only react. You just want to catch a break. You feel like everything is going wrong. Things are definitely not as they are supposed to be, or as planned. Not as you imagined, and certainly not fun. Life is no longer a game of baseball, but beginning to resemble The Hunger Games. Sometimes it appears as though we are looking for trouble. These things that carry so much weight in our lives are different for each of us. Death usually tops the list of the heaviest, followed by serious illness or injury. Different things run the bases, jobs, money, marital stress, the challenges of raising kids, aging parents, on and on. The list is infinite and we call it life, because that is what it is.
What do you do? You suit up! You pick up your bat, square up to the plate, because today is the day! Today is your day! Swing for the fence!
Does a bunt count?
Every hit counts. Keep swinging!