Battle Baby!

I am a softball mom. After awhile you develop a softball vocabulary. You know all the chants the girls shout from the dugout. Each season you watch the girls grow their skills and you know when someone is having an off day. On those off days it’s not uncommon to hear someone shout from the stands “Battle Baby! Battle Kid!”. It means exactly that….whatever you have going on, set it aside for just this next play. Take a deep breath, shake the tension out of your neck and shoulders. Battle through it. One play after the next you battle until you have heel toed your way through the game.

Obviously I am not the first person to compare life to a sporting game of some sort, but my focus is on those few words. Battle Baby! Battle Kid! It’s at the point when your chest starts to tighten up you look up at the road ahead of you, it looks bleak. What is the destination? How much further do you have to scratch and claw to make it to your next stop? You turn and look at the road behind and it seems like all the yuck of the past is on your heels, chasing you down. There is literally nowhere to run. That’s the absolute best time to do the only thing you really can do, Battle Baby! Battle Kid! Get through this moment. The next moment is coming no matter if you are ready for it or not.

When you decide to battle, what has changed? Your circumstances? Nope. It’s still the same game and you might be down a point or two. What has changed is that you have decided to purposefully stand up, face forward and stay in the game.

Right now I am up to bat, I have two strikes against me and my heart wont stop racing. I am pretty terrified of failing and I have a lot of people watching me, depending on me. Somewhere from the stands I hear a voice. Battle Baby! Battle Kid! There are a lot of “babies” and “kids” around but I know this time, that was for me. Head up, shoulders back, heart pounding loudly in my ears, knees knocking….ready to battle.