perspective and pruning

football has me down. i haven't been feeling inspired or particularly chatty lately.

funny, the difference losing makes in our life. i started to draw the analogy that losing feels like a wet blanket covering everything in our life - for the week, sometimes week to week - but its much, much more subtle than that. it's more like an undercurrent - a strong undercurrent - that exists in our day-to-day living. saturday is never far from our mind. more specifically, hoping and wondering about saturday's outcome is never far from our mind. boy, oh boy, do saturdays matter.

make me ask the question: what would our life look like if each saturday didn't bring a host of emotions, pressure, stress (and - to be fair - a huge dose of excitement). really, what would it look like? would dw and i be doing yard work? running to the grocery store? taking in a movie with little man?

hmmm....

hmmm....

ya know, i just discovered i don't want to find out. just writing this has been therapeutic. in thinking this whole thing through, i realize i don't particularly like yard work, i despise the grocery store, we're really not movie people.

yes, i think i am...i'm feeling better. i'm even feeling grateful.

as our dear head coach's wife said to me on the sunday morning following our loss to notre dame, "one thing about it, leigh ann, we're living this thing!"

and, we are.

our lives are full of emotion, hope, faith, wins and losses that stretches us and pulls out of us strength, patience, confidence, poise and even perspective.

we may be experiencing a pruning season...ahhh...but think of the harvest to come!