It’s Track Season
or, If You’re Going to Do Something, Do It With Love
We’re in week four and had our first meet last week. First track meets in northern Minnesota are often miserably cold. Typically, I’m wearing snowpants, Uggs, a Buff, hat, and mittens. Electric handwarmers are on high in the pockets of my parka.
I might also be wearing the heated vest that was gifted to me a few years ago. A friend who doesn’t live in the north was concerned about my ability to stay warm in the winter. I swore that I didn’t need it. After all, I’d not only survived 49 seasons of cold at that point in my life- I’d thrived! I’d even made it through the Polar Vortex of 2013-14, when we endured nearly two months of temperatures at or below freezing. And it had happened without a heated vest.
Actual polar vortex selfie
My generous friend sent it anyway, and even included a backup battery. And now that I’ve used it for three winters, I don’t ever want to live without it. Spoiled? Most definitely. But I didn’t need to bundle at all for our first track meet this year; it was delightfully warm with a cloudless blue sky. My favorite weather. Makes me smile just to think of it.
That blue sky- can you even stand it?!
Except we’re exhausted. Tired doesn’t even begin to describe our current state, and this is how it is every track season. I coached middle school and then varsity track at my last school, and when I left to start this job, I vowed never to coach again. Not because I don’t love it. I do love it. I love getting to know the students in a different way. I love the laughs on the bus and at the team camp, the tears when an event doesn’t go as they hoped, and the joy when they set goals and work hard to achieve them.
But loving it doesn’t add more time to each frenetically paced day. Time-starved. That’s how we feel throughout most of the season. And it’s a feeling we don’t love. So what’s to be done?
I don’t remember whether I heard someone say this or if I read it somewhere. As I said, we’re so tired, and it’s tough to remember anything nonessential right now. But the words have stayed with me:
If you’re going to do something, do it with love.
It doesn’t matter how or why we’ve found ourselves overextended. I mean, it does matter, but that isn’t the point right now. This life we wake up to each day has been carefully curated. (If you haven’t been carefully curating yours, maybe try that. It helps.) And now that we’ve arrived here, why not do it with love? Because love is the point of everything, isn’t it?
Be well :)