It’s what I have in the Minnesota Twins that they’ll both delight and break my heart a little this year. Confidence. It’s what I have in the sun-that it will set this evening and rise again tomorrow. Confidence. It’s what I have in this world-that it will continue to change despite my objections. Confidence. The older, wiser sister of assumption. It blooms with repetition. And I’m trying to reconcile the awesome power we have to give it away.
Truly I believe there isn’t anything I can’t do. I don’t say it out of arrogance, but from learned behavior. Sure, the childhood dreams of playing pro baseball are gone with back injuries and reality. Going to space isn’t on the radar. And becoming a surgeon at this point would only hinder my real dreams. But within the realm of physical, spiritual and mental reason, I think I can do anything I put my mind, heart and focus into.
It started with my Mom and Dad always telling me I could do it. I had room to try things out. Piano and swimming lessons, trombone, baseball, hockey, writing, church plays, being a good older brother, selling greeting cards door-to-door-I tried them all. A few I dropped like a hot potato and some defined, in part, much of my first eighteen years of life. And some I’m just now embracing as gifts and talents (does eating doughnuts count as a talent?) I’m humbled and grateful that I have parents who have always believed the best in me-sure, they realized I can be an idiot, but they believed and urged something more. Regardless of my success or failure, I always got a hug and loving listening ear that told me to keep going-you are talented, worthy, beloved. And I believe that, as the road less traveled, has made all the difference.
I know I’m in the minority to have parents who gave me the freedom to succeed and fail. I can feel my heart tearing when I see a parent with a little boy or girl yelling or cutting their impressionable mind with insecure and demeaning words. Sentences that often start with “You’ll never...”
We have the deep capacity to love just as we have the deep capacity to hate and incapacitate. We’re creatures of habit. And if someone tells me I can do it-over and over and over-I just might believe it. May it be said of us that we gave others the permission, in the context of love and grace, to explore all that we might have been created to do.
