I’m going to try to get real here today, really really real. If that ain’t ya thing, in the words of the great Dionne Warwick, just Walk On By. You could call this ‘good thing,’ by different names, being in good health, wellness, a stasis means of living that until we are injured or in failing health, we might take for granted. You know how it is, when you are living your daily life doing the things you love, running, watering your yard, doing scooter tricks at the skate park, can be taken for granted.
This is going to take a parenting turn here, having to do with the late great (to me) Top Jimmy Swag, Jim Swinney, my Dad. When I was like in 7th grade I was injured, something called Osgood-Schlatter’s Disease, a condition where your bones grow too fast for your muscles and connective tissue to keep up. Injured. I think Z has it and C may have struggled with it too. So at the time they would put you in a cast, immobilization. That doesn’t work so well during a basketball season. Now they treat it differently and let you go about your life, a painful part of growing up.
So there I was injured, out for part of B-Ball season and sports were a huge part of my life growing up. My Dad & Mom, who I think may have been over-analyzers at the time, put a lot of stock in my coping strategies were spending a bunch of my time roaming around the pastures near our house with a pellet gun shooting up the countryside. Beware birds!! At that time, being in good health, being uninjured was an important value. Sitting on the sidelines, being benched, did that… it made good health very very relevant.
That continual forgiveness of yourself for just being a human. That standing up for yourself and carrying yourself and aligning your thoughts and feelings and the way you act… that’s self-love. Because love is work, and love is showing up, even when it would be easier to just not.
Laura McInerny, Terrible, Thanks for Asking
Love is work. Love is showing up. My Father, Jim Swinney, did that for our family. He battled “injuries” of his own, struggles with Bi-Polar Disorder that plagued and blessed him his entire life. But despite that, he coached us in baseball, having a knack for working with those more challenging players. I recall while Leon Baze taught us the ins & outs of the techniques of the game, my Dad spending time talking with our left fielder who seemed to be struggling in life at the time. That was my Dad.
One time I got in trouble, some junkyard in Colleyville that had old cars. During one of my bro’s soccer games, another kid and I explored that junkyard and like two dipsticks we did some damage and took some oil dipsticks. Hey we were all kids once, we make mistakes. That’s part of growing up. My Dad noticed every time we drove by the place on 26 thereafter I would hide, lay down in the back seat because I didn’t want that junkyard owner to see me. Instead of repeating the lecture, he told me of a time growing up in Ranger, TX where he and some friends burned some letters in the grass of a rivals football field. They got in trouble for that. He put himself back in the shoes of a kid growing up making mistakes and learning from them. That parenting example has stuck with me. Jim Swinney showed up, he did the work of love.
Back to the importance of being uninjured. Z had a scooter accident. Scootering at skate parks and doing tricks in the driveway is one of his passions, a good thing. He can’t do that now much like I couldn’t play B-ball while being injured when I was roughly his age.
What’s he going to do while he can’t do scooter tricks? Take drives listening to the “raps.” Build a scooter trick box in the garage, doing other things he loves. Like my Dad helped me through a time of being injured, helped me deal with some mental anguish, by putting himself in my shoes, I want to do that for Z now. So with Corona and COVID let’s find peace, kindness, love, & understanding in these times and continue to show up for the ones we love. Be well, find your passions, be the better version of yourself for yourself and the ones you love. Peace out!!
ZandMe's 999 Good Things 