PLAY BALL!

Actually, I've been crying over this season for almost a year, knowing it was coming. (Well, I've had a few panic attacks and tried not to cry when I've thought about it and felt the surge of emotion.) Every new season is exciting; while everyone gets spring fever and looks forward to the end of winter, no one wants the snows to melt and the grass to appear as badly as baseball players. The coinciding of the renewal of the earth with the renewal of baseball is a powerful thing and I think I could write an essay just on that. But that's not where all this emotion is coming from. Of course I've been looking forward to the game and I love, love, love watching my kids play, but this is another bittersweet season wherein I have a graduating senior playing his last season of high school baseball.

I am so excited that this year I even died my hair orange and blue--the team's colors!

I'm hoping to just enjoy every moment because each one of those moments brings us all closer to the end of what's been a really great journey.

Like I said, I love the game of baseball. I've loved it all my life. Never would I have imagined that it would dominate my life the way it has and does, though. Totally unplanned, we've been a traveling, competitive-ball-playing family for a decade. You'd think I'd have the routine down by now, but every year is a little different and there is always a new challenge as the kids grow. Some days I feel like baseball is truly knocking me off my feet. 

More often than not, though, I think that baseball has really grounded my family. We've given a lot of time, money, blood, sweat, and tears to the game, but it has given us so much more in return. In the next few days I hope to share some specifics of what I value in the game of baseball and why I think this world could do with a lot more of it.

In the meantime--PLAY BALL! I'll be rooting for the home team.