Life Starts Today

Week 91 – December 12, 2021 – I am enough

I cannot believe that we are in the middle of December, it’s marking weekend to get the term over, and we are heading into a new year in a couple of weeks. I am not sure where the year (or time) has gone, but I have learned a lot about myself, what’s important to me, and where I need to go next. It’s been a turbulent year, like 2020 and 2019. Oh wait… let’s not exclude 2018. Maybe this change process would have been less rocky had I not been resistant or doubtful of the process and in my abilities.

I love that I have returned back to curling. It’s my childhood sport. I played in the provincials and won one and runner up in another. I loved being on the ice. I played a bit during university and into my adulthood. I wanted to play competitively once and commuted from the Sunshine Coast to New Westminster, but got pregnant and stopped. Gosh… I loved playing in bonspiels and winning a lamp or car battery (LOL), but what I loved more were the people, community, and the lessons learned.

Here is a beautiful example. Look a the photo above. It came from the last end. It was our opponent calling the last shot. My team was yellow. The game was tied and we had to steal to win the game. The house was looking very good for us and the opponent had to make a pretty spectacular shot to take one. They had one sweeper and the skip made a pretty good shot and we ended up stealing one to win the game. It was a super close game, in the end. But during the game, it was a gong show.

In the first end, none of us made a shot. The other team stole 2-points. We then took 3-points in the second end, but they took 3-points too in the third, then two points, then one. We were down by 4-points in the 5th end. This was not looking good for us and we did not have the momentum we needed to get our game together. We were taking ourselves too seriously for Friday Fun League. A few words with the skip (I’m the third) and we shifted our game. We took 3 in the 6th and stole one in the 7th.

We started to joke around in the 6th end. “Were the one shot wonders.” And, we would say… “that’s the end of the game, we made our one shot.” Then, we rebranded to the “Two-shot wonders” in the 7th end. I love joking around with the skip, but have fun with the team. We started to get our groove by the 8th end to leave us with 4 rocks in the house with several guards. We did the best we could do. It was one shot at a time, we set up the end well to steal, and we had no control of the outcome.

Although we stole one point versus four, we still won the game. That’s all that mattered. We won. That’s the whole point of playing any sport, but what was more important to me was having fun, connection, and the flow of our team. We gelled by the end of the game and the end result provides a summative and formative feedback on how we were doing. I am so glad that we were able to shift our mindset mid-game to be the “Two Shot Wonders.” I love that we are able to laugh and play.

What did I learn from this curling game? I’m in the 5th end and heading into the 6th. Change my mindset to change the trajectory of my pedagogy journey but also enjoy the process. Don’t take myself so seriously, but find times to  laugh and play along the way. It’s ok to have fun. Trust the outcome. When we shifted our mindsets in the game, we focused more on each shot and present situation versus the outcome and dwelling on the past. It’s great when my skip threw two guards as his last rocks.

Life begins today. I need to live for me and embrace next steps to make things happen. I’m not going to dwell on the  past or focus on any outcome or expectation. I know what I am working towards, but it’s more about taking one step at a time and take joy in all that I am doing, what I am learning, and who I am meeting. I love the lessons I’ve learned because I curl. Today’s learning was about parking the ego, focussing on the present, and being patient. Thankful for my team. I can do this.