The beauty and the importance of stories
Stories are the best way to share messages. We have used them for generations to teach concepts and life's lessons. It's time to share this week's story. It is a bit of a long one, so grab a cup of coffee, but I promise there is a lesson in it!
Over the weekend Maddy's soccer team was competing in the Gettysburg Blue Gray Cup. The bracket that they were in had 8 teams, that would face each other in head to head competition over the weekend. Their first game of the tournament was at 8 AM on Saturday morning, which meant that we needed to leave our house by 6:00 AM to get there in time to warm up before the game. That was an early wake up call!
We have a rule in our family that when we are driving to your event, you get to choose the music. So it was her choice. During our drive to the field, with the Hamilton soundtrack playing in the background, we discussed the tournament. We talked about what to expect. We talked about getting involved in the attack, yet still recovering to help her team on defense. We discussed making sure to possess the ball and look to make a pass to her teammates. She was confident, ready to play, and excited for her last tournament with this team before moving to a new team next year!
In that 8 AM game, Maddy came out on fire. To be fair, the whole team was clicking and was really controlling the game. Late in the game, she scored a beautiful goal. I was so proud of her, that I didn't notice that she had been knocked down. She got up to celebrate, but I knew that something was a little off when I saw her run back to her side of the field. She didn't complain at all, finished the game helping her team to their first win in the tournament. The girls and the coaches were all feeling great about the win. After the game, she began walking toward me for a post-game hug. As she walked over to me, I could see that something was off, and then the tears came.
She told me that she hurt her wrist when she got knocked down after scoring the goal. We immediately found some ice to put on it. I was afraid to ask if she could move it, but she told me she could before I could even get the words out. It looked like a sprain and nothing more so we wrapped it with tape to support it as much as we could. She wanted to try to play in the next game but I could see that it was hurting her a lot. We discussed it and decided that she could try it for a couple of minutes and see how it felt. She wanted to help her team as much as she could. Without her playing they would only have one substitute in their second game.
She entered the second game about 10 minutes in. Upon seeing her come in I, immediately, handed the camera in my hand to a friend and held my breath. She played for about 3 minutes, and seemed OK on the field, until she was knocked to the ground again... That was it. No more soccer that weekend. The end of her tournament and her time with this team. She was not only injured, but now she was upset too. Sitting on the bench while icing her wrist, she continued to cheer on her team to another victory, but she was bummed.
We left the field, stopping for a Kona Ice on the way to the car, and drove straight to the Emergency Room at Gettysburg Hospital. Where we were evaluated and had some x-rays taken which showed a buckle fracture in her left radius. That was it. End of her soccer (and lacrosse) season.
This tournament was the end of a long soccer season for these girls. However, Maddy still has 4 weeks of lacrosse left. Those 4 weeks were going to be VERY full. She has a tournament scheduled every weekend. She will now be a spectator at all of those tournaments... This threw her for a another loop.
Soccer is over, her lacrosse season is over.
What can she do now?
What would you do?
Many of us would probably just mope around. Feeling sorry for ourselves. Not Maddy... I set up our rebounder in the yard, and didn't really say anything to her about it. Before long, she was out in the yard holding her lacrosse stick in her other hand and practicing using her off hand, the non-broken one. Instead of letting the injury set her back and keep her down, she found a way to try to continue to improve.
What lessons were learned this weekend?
1 - Listen to your body. If you feel that something is wrong, stop what you are doing and get it checked out.
2 - When one part of you is injured, it doesn't mean you can't work on other body parts or skills.
3 - Even when you can't play you can still help your team in other ways.
Movement is my medicine,
