Champagne Tennis

What do you do when you are so bad at something, you hate it… and your friend wants a tournament for her birthday… and your husband picks up a racket and is able to play all his strokes and mine too?

It’s very hard not to revert to being a child.  My best solution was to dig deep, show up and find humour.  I was, after all, a secret weapon, because any shot I returned was going to come as a great surprise.  And the  champagne helped.

There does come a point where humour is going to fail, though.  It’s not being a bad sport, it’s just having pretended enough that you don’t mind looking bad and being bad at something.  For me, it was not being offered a G&T when I got home...

But it’s a good life lesson, isn’t it?  Especially when you have children or work with children.  We are all good at something.  Most of us are good at a few things.  We were created to have gifts and talents.  However, some talents are more visible than others, and some are more celebrated than others.  Does that make them better?  I’d like to think not.  I am appalling at tennis, but I love to write and find words.

And so this is what I do.

And perhaps what I do, quietly and solitarily, helps.  Helps me to find my way forward, and perhaps suggests a way for you too. 

To reflect on what it is to be understated, whether that’s what you are or what you aren’t.  And reflect on what that might mean for a child.

What do you celebrate? What do you recognise? What do you honour?

Gender shouldn’t come into it, nor should age, or race, or money.  That might influence the opportunities we have had to grow our natural gifts, or perhaps redirect them.  However, all talents should be valued, the ones that are useful to us at any given time, and also the ones that aren’t necessarily a part of our world, because they will be a part of someone’s.  That’s why they exist and have been given.

And isn’t it wonderful to be seen.

I think it’s a hard place to find, that place between being humble and     being proud, where you can comfortably just be.

I think we can need help to find it, and I think that it’s something that’s then really important to teach our children.

Who you are?  That’s perfect.  That’s all you need to be.  I see you.

And isn’t it also wonderful to see. 

I  am going to choose to pay attention and see the all of the beauty around me, and ask myself how I can join in, display my unique glory too, and that of the One who created me.

Happy birthday, Jojo—how much I love you is directly proportional to the number of times I set the intention to try and hit a tennis ball.  The number of times I missed is irrelevant. xxx