Living and Enjoying Life

As a friend commented the other day, it is time to "get on with LIVING and enjoying life".  So last night, my father-in-law and I watched my husband play 3 Pitch in his season ending playoff tournament.  My son normally plays on this team as well, but last night he was working.  When we arrived the umpire that was working the current game saw me and gave a little wave.  After that game was finished, he came up to me sitting in the bleachers and mentioned that I'm looking so much more healthy and I didn't look tired at all.  The last time he saw me was in late June.

I enjoyed watching the game.  I was nice and toasty warm as I was dressed in warm layers and had a wool blanket wrapped around my knees.  We cheered them on but unfortunately, my husband's team lost.  I used to play for this team in the summer of 2011 and so I know a number of the players and really get into the game and cheering for them.  My husband even hit an over the fence home run.  I decided to get my exercise last night by retrieving the balls that were hit over the fences for home runs.  It felt good to be able to go for a brisk walk as well as to throw the ball back onto the field in the next stoppage in play.  I could tell that I haven't thrown a ball in over a year because my aim was off.  I miss playing.  We all returned home and while my husband enjoyed his after game beers, my father-in-law and I enjoyed a specialty coffee which included Bailey's Irish Cream, Glayva and Glenlivet scotch.

This morning I enjoyed some quiet time as I read "The Book of Awakening" and the newspaper before anyone else was awake and moving around.  Once everyone else was up, I managed to complete 3 loads of laundry before my husband and my son were playing ball at 1:30.  The tournament was slightly delayed due to the  heavy rains that pelted the region during the night and early morning.  However, the day cleared up and the games were able to be played.  In order to keep our seats dry from the wet bleachers, my father-in-law and I sat on 2 thick afghans and then wrapped our legs in the wool blanket again.  We settled in to watch the game. We brought our digital camera as this could be the last time my husband and son play ball together and we wanted to get some pictures of them both on the field.  The tournament was a double knock-out format.   I took some pictures and was very pleased with how they turned out.  In one picture, my son was pitching and my husband was standing on second base and ready to run to third base.  We saw my son make a diving catch in centre field.  It was spectacular as we saw him make a head first dive and all you saw was the spray of water as he slid through the puddle in the grass.  It reminded me of when he was little and used to play on the kids' toy "The Banana Water Slide".  As he slid through the grass and mud, he held his glove hand up to show the umpire that the ball was in his glove.  As my son got up off the ground, I could hear him say "That's slightly wet."  His whole right side was mud from his ankle up to his shoulder.  My son also hit a bomb of a home run.  The team won this game and then had to play again at 4:30.

We went home between games so that I could run the ball uniforms through a quick wash and get them dried.  At the same time, I was trying to dry out my son's running shoes with the hair dryer.  This was too slow a process so I came up with the bright idea of putting his shoes and my husband's shoes in old pillowcases and tying them shut.  I threw them into the dryer with the clean clothes in an effort to get the dirty shoes dry.  It didn't quite work as we ran out of time but at least the shoes weren't as soaking wet as they had been.  Back to the ball field we went and my father-in-law and I again got ourselves ensconced up on the bleachers with our afghans and blankets.  We settled in and watched the game.  Unfortunately, they lost this game which meant they were knocked out of the tournament.  Secretly and selfishly, I was glad because I was getting very tired and cold.  I didn't want to miss watching them play ball side by side, but I must admit that I need my weekends to be a little slower paced so that I can recuperate from teaching.  My stamina just doesn't seem to be ready to go full tilt.  This is too bad because my mind is wanting and willing to live every single moment to the absolute fullest.  I want to wring the most out of life that I can.  My body just isn't quite ready to cooperate.

I'm very tired tonight and struggling with a bit of a headache.  I have noticed that I struggled to do the sudoku puzzles this past week.  I used to be able to complete most of the ones that are in the daily newspaper.  Maybe I'm having less success with them lately because I've started teaching again.  Perhaps my mind is more tired than I think it is.  I also found out tonight that my friend, that I visited last week who is in palliative care, is in her last days.  I had hoped to get in to see her a couple of days ago, but our van had been in the shop getting the brakes fixed.  I didn't make it to the hospital.  I guess she really became much more frail in the last week.  As I've received this news, I am full of anger and sadness.  As I've said before in the blog, cancer is a horrible disease!  It isn't fair that there are "cures" for some and not others.  This is a disease that has been around for much too long!!!  I know that there are strides being made in research for some of the cancers.  I know that early detection is key in the cure rates.  It is very disheartening to know that while I am in remission and the probability of a full cure is high, my friend is not so fortunate.  My heart is aching for her.  I've been praying for her as I know others have been praying for her.  My understanding is that my friend has continued to be positive as she faces these last days.  As another friend said "What a wonderful woman!"  I guess I've been praying for a miracle that's not going to happen.  Maybe my prayers now need to shift to God keeping my friend cradled in His/Her hand and keeping my friend comfortable and at peace.

In a week's time, I have a Celebration of Life to attend.  The church choir I used to sing in (and will sing in again) is singing Psalm 23 at the service.  I'm going to try to sing in the choir.  I tried singing the soprano part (the part I normally sing) but my voice isn't ready to do this.  However, this morning I was able to sing the tenor part comfortably as long as I sang it softly.  I may not be a "leader" in the choir this time, but I will be a body and a soft voice.

As this post seems to indicate, living life to the fullest doesn't always mean having fun times and memories but it also means feeling life fully both the good and the sad.