I had the pleasure of attending a luncheon this week where the guest speaker was one of the two women head groundskeepers in MLB. She is amazing. Talented. Driven. Funny. Smart.
All the things that I love when I see someone doing their thing in the world— it oozes out of them in ways that invites the whole room to smile wider because of their contagious energy. (Do you notice when you do this too?)
This incredible being started talking about grass. I worried that I’d get glassy-eyed and bored (nope!!). She said some pretty profound things– that of course, I interpreted not only for the field of baseball– but the field of our lives.
First important nugget was “grass doesn’t take a day off. It is a breathing, living thing that needs nurturing all the days of the week“.
Now, in some parts of our world (ahem, everywhere?) we may interpret this as the reinforcement of “doing” all the time— but I saw it slightly different.
I hear our bodies, our minds and our spirits need nourishment all the days– not only on Sundays or wherever we may care a little bit of self-care time. We can’t just take care ourselves when it’s convenient or fits nicely into our schedules.
Life asks us to breath each moment, not just the ones that follow the plan we’ve imagined in our minds.
She also went on to say that the tarp (that they use to cover the field during a rain delay) can suffocate this beautiful, living thing if left on too long.
Yup, done that, numerous times. Probably most notably when I put the tarp of denial on my first marriage and the edges of my soul turned brown and wilted.
How often do we put a tarp over ourselves and suffocate a dream, a relationship, a gift of ours– even truest selves?
It feels momentarily better to shield ourselves from such elements like a rainstorm– and yet, in the end, what matters is how live into all of that exposure.
I’d say let’s try tarp-less a little more this spring and see what happens.
And above else– don’t forget you are a beautiful breathing, living thing that needs water, pruning and a whole lot of sunshine (i.e. JOY) to grow your magic!
With love,
Stacey