Things Aren't Perfect, But They're Good

This was a post from 2012 that popped up when I was searching for something else.  It's good reading for now.  

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This past weekend my son's travel soccer team competed for the state championship.   I took a lot of pictures, since this was his last year playing travel soccer.   Most of them came out grainy, but I found out if I posterized them the story gets told pretty well.  

They tied the semi-finalist game in the last 10 seconds.  They battled through two overtime periods. It came down to penalty kicks to decide the game and they prevailed in awesome ways.  What excitement among the watching fans!   

Look at the awesomeness below: 

Stopping that ball

Kicking that ball

kicking that ball

Heading the ball

Stopping that ball

winning the semifinal game

This newly organized team was made up of some kids who had played together for many years and had won the last 4 state championships and a group of kids who had a challenging season last year and a few others sprinkled in from various towns.  In the final game, they came in second and it was a bitter pill to swallow for some of them.  For others, who had played on a team last year that lost most of the games coming in 2nd was pretty darn good.  And I know of some kids who would love to be able to play soccer at all, and are not able to.  Just playing would be a celebration for them.  Isn't perspective interesting?    

Yeah, yeah, I know.  I am not a sports person, I just enjoy watching.  This is my perspective.  But to me, your attitude whether you win or lose is what is important.  If you played your best, you celebrate that.  Something I said to my oldest child recently was, "Things aren't perfect, but they are good."  

That is true so often in life.  We miss out on good waiting for perfect.  

The vuvezela cheering section was perfect, though. 

~ Dixie Redmond