Sunday, February 28, 2016

Get Back Up

My friend over at So What? I Run has inspired another blog entry.  Today, she posted about falling down a half mile into a six mile run.  But she got back up and kept on going.  I cheered her for that and then wanted to share a relevant story from my son's hockey team.

The hockey team had a frustrating weekend.  They played against a very physical team and thought that the other team was not being called for things that the boys thought should have been called.  The complaining is not representative of "falling down and getting back up again."  But, I would say that they were not whiny about it.  I don't know enough hockey to know what should have been called, so we will leave that part of the story here.

What does show falling down and getting back up again was they way they handled themselves in the second game.  In the first game, they were tied 3-3 near the end of the game.  A penalty was called so that the other team had a power play.  To the parents on our team, the penalty seemed unreasonable, but bad calls happen.  The other team quickly scored on the power play and handed our kids a loss 4-3/

They came back today and played hard in the first period (not letting the loss yesterday keep them down), but ended up down 3-1.  The level of play was not that different but the other team lucked out on things more.  The second period was also hard for the boys, and they were down 6-1 at the end of two.  Their coach gave them a rousing pep talk before the final period, and they came out and scored three goals early in the third period to make it 6-4.  While they had fallen behind, they didn't stay down.  The kept right on fighting through.  Near the end of the game, the goalie got landed on and was not comfortable staying in.  The boys coach went to an open goal situation and they scored another goal with less than a minute to go.  At that point, a tie would definitely have been a moral victory.

Unfortunately, there were more penalties called in the last minute that made the difference more than one.  But the kids fought hard.  They showed that spirit of not letting being down mean staying down.

My run today was a careful one after a tinge of pain in my left thigh yesterday.  But I also found what I needed in my run today.  I am so glad for that after spending many weeks in the fall running very gingerly after something went awry just before and during the Freedoms Run Marathon.

And the men who benefit from Sharp Dressed Man are working to find a way to not let being down mean staying down.

So, my friend, my son's hockey team, my own running, and the men who benefit from the not-for-profit I support all share one thing--a tenacity to not let being down mean staying down.  

No comments:

Post a Comment