Keeping going

Persevere. Could it be that the secret to life is just that: to persevere? It’s not very deep, or mystical, after all. Just get up and go at it.
My son is on a basketball team this winter. It is his first taste of organized sport, a coached team of just six fifth graders who meet for practice twice weekly and then compete on Saturdays. They are very inexperienced but eager to learn and hungry for the camaraderie of the team – this age is all about expanding horizons and forging a feeling of belonging.
Each team they have faced has had more players and more players with better-developed skills at shooting and ball handling. They have forfeited two games for failing to put enough players on the floor and have been handily beaten in the other three. They have gone a half without scoring.
Yet, Austin looks forward to each practice and begins preparing for his games Friday afternoon, organizing his uniform and other equipment. He cannot wait to play. He and his teammates are a collection of concentrated energy and energized concentration on the side of the court before tip-off. Called into the game, each boy hurries onto the court, arms raised if on defense, eyes scanning the court, eager to participate. Persevering, happily, and growing.
In a small way, from watching him play these past several weeks, I have learned to complain less about things in my life. It is all about persevering.
My mother lost her husband, my father, nearly thirty years ago. She had followed him around the world and after he died, she moved back to her home in Ireland, uncertain of what to make of the remainder of her life and wondering aloud what sense it made to keep going without him.
But she did. She has grandchildren now and a lovely home and friends nearby. She has touched numerous lives and is a cherished part of many. No doubt she misses the love of her life, but she keeps on. The light of dawn steadily spreads into all of the dark corners of her morning and she rises to begin again.
Perhaps that sounds stark and terribly unromantic for an issue on love and romance, but it was after one of those mornings fifty or so years ago that she met her future husband.
And that is how it goes. You rise and step forward, towards each unknown day. And each step is a tiny victory.

Comments

[Mary Snowden]

Simply beautiful. Well put.