What are you choosing to see?

I recently posted my very first Facebook story. I know, I know. I’m far behind the times. Tech isn’t really my thing, okay!

It was a picture of my daughter at her first out of town basketball tournament standing at the free throw line making the shot. My husband captured the photo just as the basketball slid through the hoop. I even attached a cute basketball song that Facebook helped me find.

The photo received many views and several very nice comments. It all felt really fun and nice for a moment in time and it was a great picture from that day.

What that photo didn’t show, however, was the story of what actually happened that day. See, it was a long, exhausting, challenging day in so many ways. My daughter’s team lost every single game they played. Crushed is a more accurate term. They were playing with a skeleton team, missing their strongest players due to Covid, and their coach did not let them forget it. Each player had minimal breaks during the game, and even less once there was an injury on their team. They went from one defeat straight into the next without time to physically or mentally recover.

I watched these girls fight fatigue, physical pain and failure over and over again. While they ran around that court giving up the ball, missing shots, huffing and puffing through masks, hearing the cheering of the opposing teams’ fans as their score kept rising making a win more and more out of reach, these girls never gave up. They never cried or complained even once.

I wish I had taken a photo of the girls’ sweaty and masked faces as they pushed themselves to their limits.

I wish I had a close up of the expression in their eyes when they saw the final score but had to move on to the next game.

I wish I had a shot of the player hobbling on one foot, staying in the game longer than she should because she didn’t want to let her team down.

They may have lost big that day, but those are the images of champions.

Some days are like this one. There are lots of challenges, maybe even heartache and tears. But there may be one bright moment that we can try to hold on to.

Other days may seem easy and fun or even just uneventful. But then one bad thing happens, maybe a mistake that we made, or an argument with a loved one or perhaps a negative encounter at work that we just can’t shake. And it stays with us. And we let it fester and sit there and consume our thoughts. We block out all the good things that we quickly forget once they are displaced with this negative loop.

Some days may seem easy and fun or even just uneventful, but then one bad thing happens and it stays with us. We let it fester and sit there and consume our thoughts. We block out all the good things that we quickly forget.

Where are you putting your focus? What are you choosing to see? Life is 50:50, so you could look either way.

Was it an awful day full of challenges and stress?

Or was it a day that stretched you, but made you stronger as a result?

On that particular day there were many losses. But I chose to remember a win. Not the win of my daughter making that basket. But the one of her and her teammates’ perseverance, their determination, their character and their mental strength. That’s the memory I want from that day.

What memories are you choosing to remember?

Click the link below to get the Free Guide For Physician Moms: 5 Steps To Stop Screaming At Your Kids Now