The Turtle is Back in the Race!

Behold the turtle. He makes progress only when he sticks his neck out.

- James Bryant Conant

A couple of very kind people have mentioned to me that they missed my blog.  (They are either kind, or extremely desperate for entertainment.)  And I've wanted to write, but was a little bit embarassed to do so since I quit running.  As I was preparing to blog again, I Googled "turtle quotes" for inspiration (since I am fully embracing my verrrrrry slow pace as a runner), and found the above quote from James Bryant Conant.  How fitting, as I prepare to stick my neck out physically and emotionally  again.

A few weeks ago I spent Sunday morning at our second church home, the baseball field.  Some could accurately argue that this may well be our first church home, since we seem to end up here more often than not on Sunday mornings.  The sky was beautiful, the temperature was just right, Jay was pitching for the first time since throwing a perfect game and a shutout two weeks before, Will had friends to play with and didn't have his head in an electronic device.  Everything seemed "perfect."  Psalms 96:12 popped into my head:  "Let the fields be jubilant, and everything in them; let all the trees of the forest sing for joy!"  I snapped this picture and posted it on Facebook with Psalms 96:12 and just knew that Jay would pick the opposing player off of second base, the team would win a tournament, we would celebrate at Cardin's Drive-In with a peanut butter milkshake and all would be right with the world.  I was trying to promote joy and light among my Facebook friends!

Within a minute of posting that picture, things started to go downhill.  The other team caught fire, hitting and scoring several runs.  Jay lost confidence and was benched.  It got worse.  The second game of the day was uglier and we altered the purpose of peanut butter milkshakes from celebration to drowning our sorrows.  Shortly after placing our orders, the coach and players from the second team showed up at Cardin's.  We sullenly drank our consolation milkshakes in the shadow of their celebration and I vowed to never post anything positive about a sporting event until it was over.  (Which has been remarkably helpful during Tennessee's football season!)  

Looking back, I can see that the fields and everything in them were still jubilant, the trees of the forest still sang for joy.  It was still a beautiful morning in a beautiful setting, with my son playing the game he loves best.  In fact, I'm certain that if you gave Jay the choice of a bad day on the baseball diamond or no day on the baseball diamond, he wouldn't hesitate to pick a bad day on the baseball diamond.  He's just happy to be in the arena.

I'm reminded of a song written by Kyle Matthews and made famous by Donnie McClurkin, "We Fall Down."  Here's the chorus:

We fall down, we get up.  We fall down, we get up.  We fall down, we get up.

And the saints are just the sinners who fall down, and get up.

We're so fortunate to be falling down and getting up in jubilant fields and joyful forests.  Why do we place all of our attention on the inevitable falling down?  I've spent too much time on what I didn't do (the Disney Princess half-marathon) that I completely lost sight of what I did do (became a runner for a sustained period of time!)  It reminds me of something we did with our boys when they were little.  Whenever they fell or tripped, Bart or I would say "Safe!" Then we would get them back up and send them on their way.  We wanted them to know that tripping or falling was a part of life and that it shouldn't slow you down.  Obviously I need to parent myself a bit here.

This takes me back to my turtle imagery.  Do you know how a turtle that has flipped on his back gets righted?  One way is to stick his neck out and move it around to build up momentum to flip rightside, but there is another way:

Click here to see a turtle help a friend!

Is there something you need to "get up" and do?  Join me!