photo credit: rwangsa

“And when it rains on your parade, look up rather than down. With­out the rain, there would be no rain­bow.” ~ G. K. Chesterton

Rain.

It must have a thing for me.

Some His­tory

Before we talk about the rain, though, let’s go back just a lit­tle bit.  The mid­dle of August, and sign up for this year’s soc­cer pro­gram through the local rec depart­ment. We had two kids sign­ing up to play.  A great way for them to stay active in the fall, in a sport they both enjoy very much.  And then we received a call.  Bekah’s team (my daugh­ter) did not have enough kids signed up to field a team.  Because of foot­ball, sev­eral boys had signed up to play on only the spring por­tion of this team ( a fall/spring sea­son).   This was my first year coach­ing her.  It looked like our sea­son was over before it even began.  And then…a cou­ple more late reg­is­tra­tions trick­led in.  And we had about enough for a team — play­ers from neigh­bor­ing towns, not just local kids.  Kids who wanted to play, how­ever for what­ever rea­son, they were unable to play in their local soc­cer clubs (no team, full team, etc).

So, we’ve become a coed team play­ing in an almost all-boy league.  Play­ing against kids who have played soc­cer for many years together, while we’re a hodge podge of play­ers from all over the area — some kids who have never played together before, and some who haven’t played all that much soccer.

So, our games are usu­ally one-sided…and we’re on the short end of the stick.  It’s not for lack of effort.  So our sea­son has been.  And still, every­one has remained com­pletely upbeat — both at prac­tices and dur­ing the games.

Fast For­ward

Sep­tem­ber brought beau­ti­ful weather for all of our soc­cer practices…until last week’s prac­tice.  All day had been gusty winds, cool tem­per­a­tures, and with short bursts of rain show­ers mixed in.  Still, as we neared prac­tice time, I really still wanted to have a practice. 

And then notice that a foot­ball game we were sup­posed to go to later that night  was can­celled due to the weather…followed shortly by a call indi­cat­ing that my son’s soc­cer prac­tice was can­celed — again, because of the weather.

Soc­cer prac­tice, for us, would go on.  For those kids who could make it. 

“…I have found over the years it is those moments when I want to go home or stay home and not go out that I expe­ri­ence the great­est reward. No expec­ta­tions, I guess, helps to avoid dis­ap­point­ment. But being there some­times makes all the dif­fer­ence!…” ~ Stacey Ship­man, in a recent com­ment on another post.

So we showed up, eight kids in total (out of 12 if every­one is there).  And the rain was com­ing down side­ways.  No other teams at the park to prac­tice, just us.  Nor­mally we work on some skill enhance­ments for a part of the prac­tice.  The favorite part of the prac­tice for every­one, though, is the scrim­mage we do at the end. Here we were, though, eight kids who had shown up despite ter­ri­ble weather — to play soc­cer.  So, I threw out all expec­ta­tions for that prac­tice.  It was rain­ing, it was cold, it was windy.  None of it very much fun — espe­cially in the face of the “less fun” part of prac­tice.  So we decided we’d just much fun as we could. We broke into two teams to scrim­mage each other — really, hardly enough to field two teams.   To just play the game they love.

And we ran, and we laughed.  And the light rain that started prac­tice quickly turned to heavy down­pours, com­ing down side­ways with the strong winds.  No expec­ta­tions.  And soaked bod­ies.  Soaked with not only rain, with the good­ness of “show­ing up” and being out there despite the ter­ri­ble weather con­di­tions.  Soaked with the bond­ing of a team, built around the qual­ity of “show­ing up”.  Of being there, in the good and the bad. 

Will any of this help us win any games?  In all hon­esty, prob­a­bly not.  What it does, though, is give our team one more bond between them.  Some­thing they have, a moment together.  A group of kids, united in one more way. 

Our Daily Lives

How about you?  Are you putting your­self out there?  Think about those things that really mat­ter.  Those things that are maybe in your heart, yet it’s tak­ing you out of your com­fort zone.  Some­times it’s just going for “it”, what­ever “it” is. 

Get­ting out there.

And when you do this, and with no expec­ta­tions, being per­fectly okay with what­ever the out­come — the reward is great.  And it is great, because what­ever you come out on the other side with, no mat­ter how much or how lit­tle, it’s more than you went in with.  Maybe you gain some new knowl­edge, or make a new con­tact, or meet an old friend, or spur on new ideas, or what­ever other myr­iad of things could happen. 

Life is lived when we’re chal­leng­ing our­selves to be the best “us” we can be.  And some­times that’s stay­ing at home.  And other times, that’s putting our­selves out there.…without expectation.

A great life is there for you!  For each of you!  Your rain­bow is is out there — filled with the many col­ors that shine “you”!  And that’s a jour­ney that is so worth traveling…

Note:  A spe­cial thank you to Stacey Ship­man, whose com­ment (para­phrased above) from an ear­lier post really spurred this idea.