Juggle

 Get up at 4 AM to carry your hockey gear from the car to the rink and start practice at 4:45 AM, finish practice, have breakfast in the car. By 7 AM you are back home, take off your sweaty clothes, jump in the shower and get ready to ZOOM. If you are not a hockey player you do the same routine for swimming class or basketball class before school starts.

As a kid I got up at 7 AM, put on my uniform, grabbed a piece of peanut butter toast and caught a bus to school. My homeroom class was alphabetical all four years of high school. My classes differed because I was in the band. I had braces on my teeth so I was in the percussion section. We had marching band practice, concert band practice, pep rally band practice. What if you were a football player and had two-a-day practices, or if you ran track and you did the 100 meter, 400 meter and 4000 meter races. How do you juggle your friends, your homework, your  commitment to your dreams?

My friend had a daughter in figure skating. There was money for ice time, coaching lessons, fittings for outfits, travel to competition, new skates every year and practice, practice practice. It seems funny some sports are not as expensive like soccer, except for travel teams that need hotel rooms, meals, car pooling and good insurance for mishaps on the field. The devotion of the parent or guardian to the dreams of their child are immeasurable. 

The parent still has to do laundry, grocery shop, walk the dog, find time for sex, clean the house and then cook dinner and clean up. When you learn to juggle you start with two balls in one hand, tossing and catching each ball. You progress to three balls with two hands and then four, five and six balls. Do you wander why we are doing this?

We do things that matter to us and sometimes we do it because we are pressured into it by family, friends, neighbors or our children. 

Every night when the children were in bed Nan would sit in her favorite chair and have a small cup of cashews, or a handful of pretzels along with a beer. She would sit and listen to the silence of the house and have a moment of peace. All by herself. She did not notice I would watch her from the bannister and wonder what is she thinking. 

When is you're alone time? What are you thinking?

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