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Manure

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We are farmers.

We spend a lifetime occupying our own plot of land. There may be droughts, there might be bumper crops.  But in the end, when it comes time to harvest, the yield is entirely on us.

Now of course, every farmer goes about his business as they are made.

Certain ones may  find ways to extend their growing season beyond that of their neighbor.  Methods will vary from plot to plot.  Some automate while others will choose  “old school” and harness a horse.  An engineered,  hybrid approach will suit one while taking an organic, “back to the earth” approach will become  a better fit for others. Ultimately, you have to be your own farmer.  Be true to yourself.  What may flourish for others may be just weeds for you.

Though seasons, methods,  crops and yield may differ  from field to field, being farmers we all soon share one common trait; expertise at spreading manure.

It may provide a temporary  sudden burst of excitement, color and growth.  It may assuage fear, anxiety or insincerity.  But with the next rain or two, a heat wave or cold spell, it dissipates, burns-out or becomes a stagnant mass, losing both  impact and intensity. Continual applications of manure might make you feel better, but can merely distract you from the truth.

And ruin a crop.

To  make the things  you truly want take root and flourish in your plot requires some discernment.  Patience. Courage. And honesty.  So get to  know every inch of your  acreage. Walk the fence lines over and over and over again. Learn the lay of your land.  Pry up those rocks that work their way out of the ground.  Dig up the stumps.  Know the predators.  Cut back the brush and pull out weeds that can begin to invade, choke and overtake your land.

And spread less manure.

Embrace the nature of your  soil.  Its texture, smell and even taste was made for you. Learn  what grows well and understand what crops will  enrich, invigorate and bring that piece of ground  to an uncommon level of abundance. You cannot grow the same thing year after year and expect the same yield.  In time, the yield  will drop.  The soil will become starved.  And all of a sudden, what was once your staple – will no longer produce.  Your land will become barren.

Spreading more manure won’t bring it back.

So as you begin to blossom, identify the crops that  grow with little effort or attention, harvest them religiously, build up your stores and share the abundance with others.  Attend to the crops that have been planted with the best of intentions but never seem to take root. Get them to grow.  Move things around from season to season.  Rotate. Mix.  Match. Find ways to make all of them thrive together.  Improve your soil, make things truly grow. One  bumper crop after another. Season after season.

Then, as any good farmer does, go easy on the manure.

Harmony

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“The outer conditions of a person’s life will always be found to be harmoniously related to his inner state…Men do not attract that which they want, but that which they are.”

― James Allen, As a Man Thinketh

So I do find a great deal of validity in the words of Mr. Allen.  

Though he speaks primarily from the first person perspective, there is an element of the Third person in all he says.  He does seem to speak through Him to us  even when he or we do not realize it.  But I digress… 

We are only able to attract what we want, through what we are. 

If we fail from a character sense, make poor choices, lay blame on others, the  world around us and pretend to be something we were never intended to be, we will attract similar beings, situations and reality.  All because we choose to settle.  Assume a convenient path.  What  makes things comfy.  And all that enables us to avoid the truth.  By being that which we are. 

But then again, what about the impact of making good choices despite the push back from your past, others and the expectations of the herd?  Or the effect of accepting responsibility, holding oneself accountable and ignoring the opinion of the masses?  Choosing to accept what you know  to be true about yourself regardless of conventional wisdom?  And pursuing a path not less chosen but never attempted  by you?  Again, being what you are.

If you choose the latter, you WILL attract the forces of affirmation and what it is you wanty.  You will become what you are, because you have fully acknowledged yourself, discerned how you can grow into that being  and see where all of those difficult choices will ultimately take you. 

We can only attract what we see in ourselves.  To that I can attest. 

So hear what the wise old mooses have to share.  

 Lean into  what you know to be your truth regardless of the cost. 

Embrace the challenge. 

Push forward. 

Be all that which you are. 

Then see what comes your way. 

Harmony.

“anonymous”

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If I may beg your indulgence a bit, I have a love story of sorts.  Inspired in part by “anonymous”.

If you love the game:

     “…then life truly began when the season started.”  

Team dinners are the best sit down meal of the week.  

Hudl is your preferred form of social media

Bruises are your favorite fall colors

Wearing white to out of town events is still permissible after Labor Day

Tape has become your socks 

You accessorize with ice packs

Eye black brings out your cheekbones

And the hitch in your giddy-up later in life is still your source of pride and joy. 

If you love the game:

Having the opportunity to practice the day after a game is as big a deal as playing under the lights on Friday nights.  

Scout team is the ideal way to contribute. A golden opportunity to make the team maximize its potential and achieve its goals. 

A role on special teams may be your ticket to change the course of a game – or season – through superlative effort and will. 

If you love the game:

Then no matter what – A or B, JV or reserve, starter, or finish out the rout – “just get me on that field. “

Being wedded to a position will never supplant being bonded to a unit or the team.

Still being there for them though hurt casts a lasting impression.  

You can’t be hung up on the division.  Just play on in college.  

If you love the game: 

Embrace the blessings and needs of being a member of a large, multigenerational, extended family 

Depend upon the friends you found in the weight room, during speed and agility, at morning misery, during two a days, and with your back to the goal line.  

They are here for you now – and most likely will be later on in life. 

If you love the game: 

Stop an errant “brother”, diffuse a bad situation, console a friend in need, and raise another up even if you are down.

Invest.  Time given freely to another is a precious gift. 

Smile the most when accolades and attention for your team and teammates are delivered.   

Be humble; you are but one in a long line of fine athletes that came before – and will follow you. 

Commit.  Relentless effort, stellar character and extraordinary leadership regardless of your role is the best way to honor that big family.

If you love the game: 

Honor all of this for what it truly is; a rare and fleeting privilege.

Lean in.  A challenge of this magnitude – to work harder than you ever have at something, and then, work even harder than that  – is an extraordinary opportunity.  One that needs to be accepted with genuine and lasting gratitude.

Let go.  Giving up all of you for something bigger is a life-changing event.

If you love the game: 

Trust.  That all of them will honor the sacrifices you make on their behalf in kind. 

Respect.  Everyone has something in them that can make this team like no other – before or after. 

Affirm.  Prove their genuine worth to you through your thoughts, words and deeds. 

 Be accountable.  Yes, to the ones with the whistles.  

But more so to your partner in the weight room.  Those sharing morning misery. The one next to you on the bus.  Your teammates doing up-downs.  Your unit when you huddle.  The three-tech on the line of scrimmage.  And that guy next to you right here, right now.  

If you love the game: 

Make it about all of them by leaving all of you on that field.  

Because if you can love the game this much, then because of you, they will love the game too. 

Thanks for the inspiration,  “Anonymous”

I love it.

“Team Together”

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“Standing at Hoop Camp watching my boys scrimmage. I overhear the coach in the huddle say “team” and the players say “together”. Makes my heart ache but at the same time fill full. If that’s possible😕‪#‎teamtogetherforever‬ — at Homestead High School (Mequon, Wisconsin). – Kira Chekouras Testin

Sometimes, an individual will come along that is the embodiment of a message. 

Living a life – as conveyed through their thoughts, words and deeds – that is meant to share and teach some essential and lasting truths. 

And individuals of that magnitude possess mass.  And it is the specific gravity of them and their purpose that inevitably draws others toward them.  

Like Coach Chekouras.

Both he, and what he still stands for – resonates.  

Perhaps this is what Kira felt today at basketball camp.  

….“cause Coach was there.  

His message  was certainly still reverberating through those coaches and campers.

Now someone once said that “every act creates a ripple with no logical end”.  

A statement, I believe, is  intended to describe the impact good – from a single point of contact – can exert on the world around it.

So just imagine the good of this individual.  An impact of lasting resonance yet today. 

Through not just one, but now, generational points of contact.  

Years, and years and years apart. 

Ripple, upon ripple,  upon ripple, upon ripple.    

Coach lived that message.  And even today, he yet lives within it.

Remaining to this day, its embodiment.  

Just ask those campers.  

For it resonates within all of them.  

“Team Together”. 

(Coach Chekouras entered eternal life in 2006. I came across his daughter’s reaction to the players response at a Hoops Camp, and shared this initially in 2015. I came across it and thought it worthy of a re-share.)

  .  

Pure joy.

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“Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. “

James 1:2-8

As we leave the old, the comfortable, the familiar and make our way into the new, disquieting and unseen that lay ahead, all of us will be tested in some fashion or another.  

We can decide to respond with fear, an attitude of avoidance  or ignore  these challenges altogether.  But then again,  we can choose to embrace them for what they truly are.  

Lessons. 

These  will come in all shapes imaginable, endless varieties of configurations, woven into  layers.  And over time, by actively embracing faith,  its sibling perseverance will come to fruition  and their meanings will become evident.  

It is not to say that these meanings are necessarily only an end result.  That  “ah ha !” moment.  Could very well be that they make themselves known in various forms.  

Perhaps as  the time it took to discern.  Maybe as a temporary setback.  Or set aside so that another more urgent lesson could be attended to.  

It could have been experienced as  changes that occurred within our being as we embraced these lessons.  How we came to grow and evolve into something we were intended to be.   

Deeper lessons still. 

All of which depend on our ability to  believe in what could not yet be seen.  

Faith.  

Resolutely sticking to it, with unfettered resolve, while letting go at the same time.  

Perseverance. 

All because we believe in what we have not yet seen.

Faith  and perseverance exist in a perfect union. The active act of patience – waiting for what you know to be true  – so that you can nourish the  persistence that enables you to make the journey .  Leading us to discover the life we intend to live.  

All so that you may be mature, complete and not lacking anything. 

And realize the product of your endeavor. 

Pure joy.