It's been quite sometime since I last posted a blog. It's not for the lack of topics to dwell with, but likely due to an inordinate impulse to stay put and do nothing. Lately, I've been active on the hoops circuit, and despite losing a key burst of speed from time to time, I've been enjoying the competition. I pride myself in being a team-oriented player, a glue-guy if you must pick a positional cliche. However, from time to time, I get a little more offensive-minded, and oftentimes, only when provoked by a good, old-school trash talk.
I usually stay calm during the game, but if you really want me to get started, try pushing one of my buttons and tell me you've seen all of this before, that you're better than me, and most of all, that I'm already way past my prime. The last one might have been true, and for most players who enjoyed a certain level of excellence, admission of such facts is a very hard thing to come to terms with. I'm no superstar that's for sure. I don't have a specific many go-to-move. The speed that used to be my weapon has long been a thing of the past. What I have now, is a special set of skills, veteran smarts, and the one thing that's likely never gonna let go of me, my booming self confidence.
I may never have those killer ankle breakers no more, that high degree of difficulty switching hands layup, or that lock down defense (I own this myself :D ), but I can still shoot those damn threes, make that ridiculous behind-the-back pass every now and then, and when invoked, tell you all about it!
I simply love it when they tell me I'm done, and then all they can do is watch the ball kiss off the nets as I swish another one. Tell me that they'll steal the ball, and either they end up playing touch with my shadows or end up leaving their lips on my shoulders. Try crossing me up, and believe me, if we're on the same speed limits then it's likely that ball's gonna get loose on the break.
Bottom line is, I don't need to brag. They all know what I can do. They've seen it before, and still sees it to this day. It's just like your not-so favorite old movie. The one that you want to kick every now and then, but somehow still comes back to haunt you. So I you, tell me I'm done, and I'll let you have the chance to hear this..swish..
HOW I'M LIKE A PENCIL
By Steve Goodier
It occurs to me that I have a lot in common with a pencil. That's right – a simple and humble little pencil. Not the fancy mechanical kind. That's too high maintenance for me. And I'm not as showy as a plume pen or as smooth as a ball point. I don't live in bold strokes like a heavy marker. But I'm a lot like a pencil. Here's how:
1. Like a pencil, I have a built-in eraser. I can correct my mistakes. No, I can't change the past, but I can make it right again. And if I can't erase history (after all, what's done is done) I can at least erase a great deal of guilt and anger with forgiveness.
2. Like a pencil, I do better if I'm sharpened once in a while. My mind and skills grow dull without occasional honing. Even my spirit and attitudes need refining if I'm to be at my best. And there is something else, too. I find that the difficulties of life wear away at me, and they can either grind me down or shape me into a person who is more capable and creative. The sharpening I get from living through tough times is often painful, but I know it can make me a better person.
3. Pencils work best in a skilled hand. And like a pencil, I can do some pretty terrific things with a little guidance. Other people bring out the best in me, and with the help of others, I can do far more than I ever can alone.
4. Like a pencil, I should leave my mark whenever possible. I too often underestimate my influence on another. I have daily opportunities to leave something good behind. That is what it means to leave my mark. It may be in small ways, it may be in the lives of people I love, people I have touched or nurtured, or even in incidental conversations struck with strangers. But, I have a mark to leave and should use every opportunity to leave something good behind.
5. Like a pencil, it is what is on the inside that matters. A pencil without lead is useless. And a yellow pencil will not do when a black or red pencil is called for. What is on the inside is all important. My outer appearance matters less than I probably think, while it's the stuff on the inside that folks notice about me. Whether it is understanding or intolerance, love or bitterness, peace or unrest, kindness or self-centeredness, hope or despair, courage or fear, what is on the inside matters most.
6. A pencil works best on paper or canvass. It will never leave its mark on water and will wear itself down against a mirror. I do best knowing my strengths and limitations. I can't do everything well and that is okay. There is still plenty of good to be done by doing what I do best.
7. And finally, like a pencil, the biggest part of my purpose in this life can be summed up in three words: to be useful. When I'm too broken to hold together, when everything is ground away or worn away, when I no longer have anything to contribute, I know my life is coming to an end.
Like I said, I have a lot in common with a pencil.
By Steve Goodier
"The pharmacist just insulted me," a woman sobbed to her irate husband. He snatched the phone from her hand.
"I'm sorry to upset her," the pharmacist said, "but put yourself in my shoes. First, my alarm didn't go off and I overslept. I rushed out and locked both my house and car keys inside and had to break a window to get them. On the way to pharmacy I got a speeding ticket. When I finally arrived late, there was a long line and the phone was ringing. I bent over to pick up a roll of nickels, I cracked my head on a drawer and fell backward, shattering the perfume case. Meanwhile, the phone was still ringing. I picked up and your wife asked me how to use a rectal thermometer. I swear, all I did was tell her."
Have you ever had a day like that? One man likes to say, "My life is filled with mountaintop experiences. One day, I'm on top of the mountain. The next day the mountain is on top of me." Those kinds of mountaintop experiences are hard to take.
There will always be times when the mountain is on top. Or, in the words of Charles Tindley, times "when the storms of life are raging." When that is the case, what do you do? One wise sage gives us a clue:
"Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass. It's about learning to dance in the rain."
I have spent too much time just waiting for one kind of storm or another to pass. "When things change…" "When everything settles down…" "When it gets easier…" "When…" Well, you get the idea.
A few years ago, someone stole my wife's purse. That was a storm we didn't see coming. For days she was hassled with replacing lost credit cards and identification. And though it wasn't a crisis, it was still an aggravation.
As she went about the process of trying to protect her identity from theft and replacing the contents of her purse, I recalled the words of author Matthew Henry, an 18th Century English clergyman. Henry, too, was robbed. Yet he approached his problem differently than I. Unbelievably, his predominant feeling was not anger, but gratitude. What he said was, "I give thanks that I have never been robbed before; that although he took my wallet, he did not take my life; that although he took everything, it was not much; and finally, that it was I who was robbed and not I who robbed."
No self pity there. He was robbed and came away feeling gratitude for his life. Here was a man who learned something I had not yet figured out – to dance in the rain.
I've found that, over the years, there is plenty of rain, and much of my life has been about waiting for the storms of life to pass. So next time it rains, I'm going to dance.
