New Beginnings

The little tree behind my clinic is emerging from winter's slumber. Beyond the bud stage, new leaves are starting to unfurl.

I've written about this tree before.  I park my truck next to it when I come to work each day.  It really doesn't seem to have grown that much but I guess my perspective is different, watching it every day.  I suppose that if I looked at a photo of it from 5 years ago, it would seem to have grown a lot.

Such is life watching things grow when you're looking up close.  I just know that I enjoy this little tree.  It has enough fall foliage to be colorful and enough branches to hold a little bit of snow in winter.

But in the spring--oh my.  That is when it is my favorite tree.

Many of us just celebrated Easter last weekend.  The holiest of Christian holidays, in many ways it represents renewal and a new beginning.

That's what I think about when I look at my little tree.  The renewal of life and the perpetuity of our world.  Life going on.

I don't want to sound all melancholy but this is my first Easter without a parent.  It's a bit of a strange character.  I now am the oldest generation in my family.  The patriarch, I guess. 

If you keep your eyes open, you will see signs of renewal and opportunity everywhere.  My little tree and some special time spent with my grandkids reminds me of that renewal, be it spiritual, physical, emotional...you name it.  It seems synonymous with spring.

We just finished spring football practice at MHS.  It's a new team and a new head coach.  Maybe this is my formal goodbye to George Quarles.  He will always be a friend and I will miss him greatly.

But Derek Hunt is now at the helm and I'm not sure I could be more excited about a football team.  You'd think that by now I would be getting tired of this stuff but it hasn't happened yet. 

It's a new team, a new season, and really a new coaching staff (although the people are the same--the dynamic will be different).  Isn't that true for every team everywhere?

I think it's one of the most exciting things about high school sports.  And maybe part of the reason coaches coach:   The chance to grow and mold young people and then to see what they can do on the playing field.  Renewing the process each and every year.

I'm sure that same sense of renewal and opportunity is present in all of our schools.  It's truly fun to watch kids grow up and change and become young ladies and young men of talent and ability when before they might have been only potential.

And those that you might never have thought would contribute to the team--those might be the most special of all.  A new season and a new team means that they have a blank slate...that they have the same chances as everyone else. 

Isn't that awesome?!?  I'm excited to see what the kid that languished behind a star can do when it becomes his or her turn.  

Stay tuned. 

I will.