Make A Joyful Noise

Last night my husband and I attended our thirteen year old granddaughter's softball game. You couldn't have picked a nicer evening. It was about 70 degrees, not a cloud in the sky, just perfect weather. Parents and grandparents were spaced along the sidelines sitting in a variety of folding chairs. My mind slipped back in time to when I was thirteen and playing softball. We thought we were great. Now I can see that we really weren't, especially when I saw the pitchers. They wind up, their arms making a full revolution along their sides, and then they release the ball in as fast a motion as possible, sending it hurtliing toward the batter with pretty good accuracy. They are still young, so lots of balls went flying past the catcher, but all in all most of the pitches found their mark and kept the umpire busy callling balls and strikes. When I played we did the slow underhand thing that had the ball gently lobing over home plate and allowing most of the players to be pretty good hitters. It was fielding that determined who the winner would be.

On this night, Abby's, my grandaughter's, team was really getting killed. In fact by the second inning we thought they might call the game. My son informed us that they would let them play, but after the winning team scored ten runs over the opposition, the umpire would call the inning so the losing team could get a chance to bat. And that is what he did.

The first two batters were called out on strikes. Seems they also had a better pitcher than Abby's team. The next batter came up. She swung the bat and made contact. Off she headed for first base. We were all cheering madly for her, when from right field comes the opposing player running with all her might. The ball starts to descend, just passed first base. The fielder lunged forward, mitt in her outstretched hand positioned just under the ball. She fell forward, and jumping up, with the most surprised look on her face, held her gloved hand high showing the ball firmly tucked away. I can't accurately describe the pure joy this young lady showed. She went running toward her teammates, made a little jump and gave the most joyful laugh I have heard in a long time. She started running again, and jumped again and laughed. She reached her coach and hugging him, laughed again. Everyone, and I mean both teams, laughed along with her. It was delightful.

Thinking about this girl and how she must have felt so proud, I could only hope that everyone would have such a moment. A moment when we can be so happy that all the bad things that bombard us day in and day out, can at least momentarily slide away. A moment when we want to jump and laugh and say, "Life is good."