Last night I played a softball game with nine other people. We were down 13 points by the last inning, playing the #1 team.<\/p>
It seemed pretty bleak.\u00a0 We were up to bat last.\u00a0 In order to win this game, we would need to rotate through the batting box at least fourteen times before we had three strikeouts.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>
As each of us got up to bat, rather than focusing on a home run hit, we each just aimed to get on the base. The score started to change. First, they were 13 points ahead. Then 9. Then, we had just one point left to win the game. It was the bottom of the inning, we had two outs and the bases were full. I was on first base, praying that someone would hit a ground ball and we could score a point.<\/p>
The ball was hit way over second base and landed in the dirt.\u00a0 The player ran home and touched the base.\u00a0 We won the game!<\/p>
What I love about this game is that it takes everyone<\/em> on the team to play. We all catch a few balls, hit a few balls, miss a pop fly, strike out, win or lose the game.<\/p> I\u2019m not the greatest player on the team. I, like any other player, have good days, and bad days when I play. I can\u2019t tell you how great it is to lean into the other players when I\u2019m on the bottom of the roster because I\u2019m not doing great.<\/p> Friends. We\u2019re not perfect people in life. We make mistakes, we make lousy choices, and some days we\u2019re really on the bottom of the pecking order. Sometimes we\u2019re alone and feel like throwing in the towel. Sometimes someone on another team kicks our butt, and gets us out on third base. I can honestly say I\u2019ve been here a lot.<\/p> BUT<\/p> We also have the friend that shows up when we\u2019re down, the family member that calls when we need it, or the random people that we cross by daily that give us that hello, a smile, or in some small way a little pick me up that we need.\u00a0 There is always someone we can call if we need help.<\/p> We were never meant to do this journey in life alone. We need each other. Where I might not be the best hitter, the best catcher, or even the best runner, I have a team around me that if we work together, we can make it. Next time you are out around others, give them a high five for me. Let\u2019s win the game. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Last night I played a softball game with nine other people. We were down 13 points by the last inning, playing the #1 team. It seemed pretty bleak.\u00a0 We were up to bat last.\u00a0 In order to win this game, we would need to rotate through the batting box at least fourteen times before we had three strikeouts.\u00a0\u00a0 As each of us got up to bat, rather than focusing on a home run hit, we each just aimed to get on the base. The score started to change. First, they were 13 points ahead. Then 9. Then, we had just one point left to win the game. It was the bottom of the inning, we had two outs and the bases were full. I was on first base, praying that someone would hit a ground ball and we could score a point. The ball was hit way over second base and landed in the dirt.\u00a0 The player ran home and touched the base.\u00a0 We won the game! What I love about this game is that it takes everyone on the team to play. We all catch a few balls, hit a few balls, miss a pop fly, strike out, win or lose the game. I\u2019m not the greatest player on the team. I, like any other player, have good days, and bad days when I play. I can\u2019t tell you how great it is to lean into the other players when I\u2019m on the bottom of the roster because I\u2019m not doing great. Friends. We\u2019re not perfect people in life. We make mistakes, we make lousy choices, and some days we\u2019re really on the bottom of the pecking order. Sometimes we\u2019re alone and feel like throwing in the towel. Sometimes someone on another team kicks our butt, and gets us out on third base. I can honestly say I\u2019ve been here a lot. BUT We also have the friend that shows up when we\u2019re down, the family member that calls when we need it, or the random people that we cross by daily that give us that hello, a smile, or in some small way a little pick me up that we need.\u00a0 There is always someone we can call if we need help. We were never meant to do this journey in life alone. We need each other. Where I might not be the best hitter, the best catcher, or even the best runner, I have a team around me that if we work together, we can make it. Next time you are out around others, give them a high five for me. Let\u2019s win the game. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1523,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[52,40],"class_list":["post-1518","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-thoughts","tag-family","tag-hope"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebighopeletters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1518","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebighopeletters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebighopeletters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebighopeletters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebighopeletters.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1518"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thebighopeletters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1518\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1520,"href":"https:\/\/thebighopeletters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1518\/revisions\/1520"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebighopeletters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1523"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebighopeletters.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebighopeletters.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebighopeletters.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}