Take The Shot!

Sitting here watching my son tryout for the seventh grade traveling team I realize one thing.... time is running short. I've been at this father business for many a year and it's something you only hope goes well for the long run. I've coached him him basketball for four years now and I'm letting him go out for something without being under my watchful eye.

 

As a parent, you want to "coach up" your child throughout life and show them the right way and the wrong way, the easiest versus the hardest, the long versus the short... the lessons are endless. I look back to when he first came home with Lindsey and I, and I refused to hold him for about six or seven months outside of the hospital. I had a dream I was holding him and I looked up and saw Anthony, then looked back at Da'lin and he turned to dust in my arms. Still remember that dream like it was yesterday. I held him in the hospital a few times, but I knew the nurses were there. Finally after a lot of coaching from Lindsey and seeing he needed me to...I finally did it. I haven't let go since. I've been through so much as a father and I can't say I've been right all the time, but it's a trial and error thing. You only hope to not screw up too badly.

 

At this stage in my life, I know the summer of my life is in it's final stretch. People my age are starting to carve out a home, a spouse, a career, a family type setting. They're letting go of the childish things like clubbing, one night stands, insecurities, stuff like that. At 34, I know my body is having major pains, my head is hurting a lot more, my memory never really came back, I'm starting to nest, and I am trying to find some quiet as well as bring along friends that I trust and need (some old ones and some new).

 

For a few years now, I've been the bitter "old" man. I still get angry at the past, I question the decisions I've made, I wonder "what ifs"... who knows where I'd be if I had stayed in the Army like I wanted. Or if I'd just moved to North Carolina when I was 19 like I planned.

 

It was once said in a Beatles song "Life is what happens while you're busy making other plans." It is so true. You plan for something and then..... POOF! The surroundings change, or the rules change, your situation changes. Some beyond your control, some not. Some people present their truth which turns into a lie. Sometimes, they change just simply because they can. Or they stay the same and bitch about life never getting better....

 

Much thinking being done at basketball tryout. I guess I'd tell you this in closing. One hundred percent of the shots you don't take are the ones you're definitely gonna miss.