In this Together

One of my great teachers in life is my daughter. I love watching her do life, interact, dream, play sports and just in general how she conducts herself and handles her emotions. Recently, she was invited to play local netball trials along with 4 other of her friends.

As trials go, some of the very good players sometimes are not elected for the next level – simply because the competition for the more ‘popular’ positions are a lot tougher. This unfortunately played out for Mikyla and one of her closest friends. Mikyla, along with 2 other girls got through and her close friend (who is an incredibly talented player) didn’t get selected.

There was some other emotional happenings in the background of this event, that was luckily dealt with efficiently and on the spot. But the emotional atmosphere was definitely already loaded when we got to the car.

When we got into the car, I asked Mikyla if I should come sit at the back with her. She was crying and very upset.

I asked her what she was so upset about and really nothing could prepare me for her answer.

She was crying (sobbing actually) because her close friend did not get elected. I told her that there will be other opportunities for them to work together. I tried to down play the idea that it is “just a sport” and that there are bigger things in life than only a regional netball trial. And she immediately told me that it’s not about that.
She told me that she was upset because to her, this was one of many sports that she played, but for her friend, netball was her favorite sport, and that upset her terribly.

And just like that – we both opened the waterworks and that is how we made our way back home.

My child, my heart breaks for your heart breaks in life. However, I am blown away by how you are a mix of ‘competitive” and compassionate at the same time. I really feel she has an incredible instinctive balance in these two energies.

I would love to live in a future, where people find a balance between testing/expressing the best of their ability versus the need to have a compassionate heart and respect for “the competition”. I totally think it is possible to do your best and still maintain good, healthy relationships.

Love and Moonlight,

Leonie