Just Keep Hopping...

Seems like an appropriate Spring time title right? One of my favorite phrases is "just keep swimming" but I didn't want to take anything away from Dory. By the way, Ellen is on my mind a lot lately...not sure what that means...

Anyway, a thought has been floating around in my head that I want to share. I get the best messages from the oddest places sometimes.

Last weekend at my daughter's water polo tournament her team was in first place on the first day of a two day tournament.

Now, I must explain, usually her team is towards the lower end of the rankings, wins are a rare treat. This particular day the first team they played had to forfeit due to too few players.

Yes, they all rallied and some of our team played on their team for a fun scrimmage. We lost something like 14-2 but that's ok - it counted as a WIN for us. Woo Hoo!

Later in the day we played a team and actually DID win! YAY! My daughter scored the very first goal of the game. Double YAY!

She is one of two girls on the boy team. So proud of her!! Now for this WIN it didn't matter if that opponent was the 4th level team of the other club (not sure of proper vocabulary but that means they were not the most skilled players that the club had to offer).  That's ok, it doesn't matter. Our kids WON!

At the end of this day we were officially in first place because we had 2 WINS. Phenomenal! So Exciting! As the kids parted ways their coach tells them that they are in first place, if they win the games the following day they will win the entire tournament.

The kids were sooooo excited! Chatter about all the different scenarios of winning was so wonderful to hear! What a great feeling to end the day.

Well, one of the parents, bless her heart, tells me privately "I don't think I would have told them." We have a conversation about how many times they've lost, how sad it always is to see all the fancy trophies and they never get one.

She is so sweet, she loves her boy so much she doesn't want him to experience disappointment. I understand but I couldn't help feeling that even if they have that one night to dream about victory, the loss (NOT guaranteed loss, POSSIBLE loss) is not even there yet.

The excitement of possibly winning is so powerful! Why not enjoy that feeling as long as possible without holding back at the thought of failure?

Well, of course today I'm ruminating on this very important message. With all the things that are happening in my life right now - why stop myself from moving forward because I'm afraid of failing?

Why should anyone stop themselves from joy because of worry? It is not naive, it is not crazy, it is life - enjoy the happy times with abandon. Go all in!

The happy times are the ones to hang on to. Seriously, I really believe the kids will remember being in first place for years from now more than they will that they lost. And yes, they did lose the next day.

But now they know what it's like to feel like a winner even for that one night. Now they know what they are aiming for. Now they can hop from that one tournament to the next hoping and striving for that victorious feeling again.

​It's better to hop from one victory/happy event to the next instead of dragging yourself there being bitter over bad calls and staying in that loss. Stay on that high and hop from one happy time to the next -  you know it's coming - what are you going to do with the time in between?