October is here, and with it some of my favorite things:
Cooler temps
Cozy Sweaters
Crackling fires
And…FOOTBALL!
Actually, that was a lie. I hate football, but since my daughter is a middle school cheerleader, I’ll be spending the next few weeks attending games. Fingers crossed that we’ll enjoy a repeat of last week’s game, in which we were winning by more than 35 points, and we got to experience the greatest sports’ rule of all time—THE RUNNING CLOCK!
I’m not sure why every sport doesn’t run on a continuous clock. I think that if there were more pressure to “beat the clock,” the games would actually be more interesting. No time outs. No pausing the clock to reset the field or retrieve the ball from out of bounds. Just a clock that keeps on going.
Like Life.
C’mon, people!
Anybody else thinking about that scene in My Cousin Vinny when Mona Lisa Vito tells Vinny he better get his act together because “ My biological clock is [taps her foot] TICKING LIKE THIS and the way this case is going, I ain’t never getting married!”
Proof that clocks, both artificial and biological, never truly stop.
If this year were a football game, we’d be in the fourth quarter right now.
And whether you feel like you’re winning or losing, the score is probably not close. You know what that means…THIS CLOCK AIN’T STOPPING FOR NOBODY!
In football, either the losing team gives up because hey, this game is already over, so why even try? Or the losing team keeps playing, giving it their all, knowing that even if they can’t win, they might learn something new in the process.
I don’t know of any team that has ever recovered from more than a 35 point deficit. The greatest high school comeback ever was PLANO EAST VS. TYLER JOHN TYLER on November 26th, 1994 and in that one John Tyler trailed by 24 points before coming back to win with a final score of 48-44. (If you’re the kind of person who’s into football, you can read more about that exciting match up here).
All this to say that since we are in the last three months of the year, let’s finish well. Even if we don’t feel like we’re winning, we can apply ourselves and learn something new. And learning is always a win!
My sister in law is waiting for some furniture to arrive, and it’s not scheduled to be delivered until almost Christmas. “Ugh!” I said. “Don’t you hate waiting? That’s so far away!”
“Are you kidding?” she said. “These three months will fly. Don’t you remember how fast the end of the year always goes?”
She’s right, of course.
There’s still Halloween and her birthday and Thanksgiving and her youngest will turn one before the end of the year. Believe it or not, we have friends who have already decorated for Christmas—a holiday that’s still 80 days away). So yes, she wasn’t kidding. These next three months will fly.
Eeeeekkkk!
I’m trying to remember that just because the clock isn’t slowing down, that doesn’t mean I can’t. While a new year often does provide fresh perspective, we have to remember that all the problems from this year won’t magically disappear just because 2020 has turned into 2021.
Thank goodness for that thing that competitive runners do and that psychologists have dubbed the “end spurt.” Planning requires energy—lots of it—and we’re going to need it in order to finish 2020 like winners.
So I watch the clock, but I haven’t given up. I can see the finish line. Can you? Let’s give it everything we’ve got, so we can win 2020 together!
Mona Lisa Vito also got her wish. Vinny wins the case, and based on the good-natured bickering happening as they drive away from Alabama forever, I’m guessing her biological clock is pretty happy, too.
I’d love to know what this year is teaching you. Just hit “reply” or drop me a line in the comments below.