The World Is Round

Last week I took Harley back to the knit shop to see Jackie. I wanted to take Jackie a gift to say thank you for having been kind enough to rescue Harley. It is often difficult to find an appropriate gift for off-the-wall occasions such as this. Having no idea what I wanted, we went to an off-the-wall little shop off the square here in Denton. I found what I thought was the perfect thing - a keychain in the shape of an angel wing that had inscribed on it "The world is round. What often seems like the end is really the beginning." I think that it had an attribution but I can't tell you who it is.

These words certainly ring true to the situation that Harley found herself in on that cold February morning. Between the subfreezing temperatures and the amount of traffic in the area where she was found, the end seemed more of a possibility than did a beginning. We were all blessed and that day the odds were beat; it was a beginning.

I was struck again tonight by the truth that rings in these words. The soccer banquet was this evening. This is the real end of the soccer season. And for Brooke, the end of her soccer career. Brooke went out with a bang by earning the team's MVP award for the second year in a row. The coaches had kind words to say to all of the graduating seniors and the senior slide show, done by one of the parents, was a touching tribute to what these kids have accomplished thus far in their lives.

For the past three years I have attended the soccer banquet and wondered how I would feel when it was my child who was the senior. There were some tonight who were a little teary. I thought this might be me but I found myself hearing the words on the angel wing key ring. This was more of a beginning than an end.

True, Brooke may not play soccer anymore but isn't there more to life than soccer? All that she learned about team spirit, discipline, concentration, frustration, winning and losing must be transferable in the life that is yet to come. And, hopefully, whatever her coaches and teammates saw that made them honor her as MVP must be something that might help her to be an MVP in some other endeavor.

Though I will miss her next year when she goes to Chicago, I am excited that Brooke will be experiencing new things and that she will be swimming in a bigger pond. And as for soccer, Erin still has three more years so it is not over for me! Maybe when Erin is a senior I will feel differently. It may really be the end of watching the girls play, of sitting in the rain, snow and bitter cold . . .

Erin could play soccer in college.