Bittersweet and Bobbing

A flurry of emotions flooded me, none of them good.

Oozing over with anger and sadness at the State Wrestling Tournament in Columbus last weekend, I was fit to be tied, or smacked, or something.

My senior son, Wes, had lost his second match due to a foot injury in the first round. He was predicted to take 2nd and now his high school career was done. This was the first in nine years of four high school wrestling sons, that two of them qualified for State the same year. It held such promise!

I threw my stuff in the trunk (that required 5 slams to shut) and sat in the car for a long time trying to cool down before I headed back to the hotel in Nascar fashion. Doing quite well, I might add...with the Nascar part....I was northbound on 315 when I noticed something bobbing in my rear view mirror. You guessed it, the trunk lid. I couldn't safely pull over and nothing was in danger of falling out unless there was a half pipe around the corner. So I just kept clipping along with traffic while I pretended not to notice people staring and pointing. I just hoped my chocolate supply didn't bobble loose.

I grin now, but boy was I angry. At God. Yep, I usually go straight to the top for this stuff. I know He could have blessed Wes, but He didn't. Not in this way anyway. It made me seriously angry.

Dexter (sophomore) was 17 seconds away from being done in the tournament himself, and down by 3 points. I was starting to feel the tears of defeat when Dexter reversed the kid (2 points) and locked in his crazy wrenching tilt where he literally leverages his entire body on the kid until he turns him to his back - and it worked! He scored two more points in the last two seconds to win the match! This was a near heart attack I tell you. I bawled. I had friends and family crying. I had people who didn't even know me crying. It was an amazing victory for Dexter and he went on to place 7th in the state.

A bittersweet weekend to be sure.

Today a friend hit a point home for me, and I needed it. She said, (my paraphrase) "Shelley, sports teach life lessons, and the rewards they get later in life applying those lessons are the ones that matter."

I knew this, I really did. I wrote something like this in my wrestling book. The people they become, the commitment and work ethic they learn, this is what matters. I know. But somehow today when she said it, it was like I finally hit the ball that was pitched to me, and I smacked it out of the park.

OK God, I get it. I still don't really like it and I'll probably need reminded again, but I think I get it.