Signing out for a while

I once saw a commercial with a husband and wife speaking to each other about how busy they were. If I recall correctly, they were busy juggling kids around from one sporting event to another. The wife said to her husband, “What did we used to do before we had kids?”, the husband replies “sleep”. The wife, shocked at her husbands honest answer simple said “oh yea…”. This commercial runs in my mind often because it very closely describes my life as of late. Somewhere between Tee-ball, Baseball, Commissioner, Coach, Chairman, Dad, Foreman, Project Manager and husband, I have lost myself. All these glorious titles mean little to me, but I fulfill interest with everything I am. Nothing is left for me, but I press on without need. I fully understand that my position is not permanent. Someday I will once again live my life for me.

Yesterday, while down at the ball field dialing in my pitching for the upcoming season, I was reminded why I do what I do. I was on the field closest to the local playground in the complex when out from the playground came running a little girl. I recognized her immediately. It was Kya, a now 5 year old that was on one of my teams last year, Tee-ball team. I recall her as being the worst on the team. Given her age and lack of parenting, it was very difficult to get though to her. She played with the grass more than the ball. Out of all the kids I coached last season, she was the one that I would pick as the least affected.

Running at full speed, her little legs finally made their way to the backstop. She looked at me with a smile so big her face almost disappeared and said “HI COACH. WHAT CHA DOIN?” I told her that I was practicing for the upcoming season and asked if she was playing this year. I knew that she was not but asked non-the less. She said to me “na, my mom said I couldn’t sign up”. We chatted briefly about how school was for her. Vaguely, I heard her father calling her name from within the playground. I yelled for him at and waved my arms to gain his attention. Once he seen his daughter with me, on the field, he gave me a thumbs up and went to attend this other children.

Kya and I spent another few moments talking about stuff, and then I escorted her back to the playground. Walking away I heard her tell her father over and over again “I saw my coach, I talked to my coach”.

I have strayed from the point a little here, so let me wrap it up. Things are a little busy around here and I need to remove something from my life for a while. I have narrowed it down to either blogging or wiping my ass. I tossed these two around for a long time and ultimately chose my personal hygiene to be just a little more important then blogging.

Once our season starts, I plan to post after and about every game we play. I feel that I need to let blogsphere know what not I, but we, as a union of volunteers, can do for our community and tomorrow’s leaders. Until then…. Have fun.