The Lights

A little more than ten years ago I helped rebuild two ball diamonds at Lawrence Park they have since reverted back to the previous state of unusable but that is a different story. This story is about the feeling that comes over you when you are playing at night under the lights and when the game is over and you are charged with the upkeep of the diamond you are also the guy that shuts off the lights it is a very big clack  sound when you do this followed by the lights slowly fading away and then the park is quite, dark and calm and it seems as if there are ghost players out there still playing the game for only those of us who truly love it and understand that the game never ends just the faces playing it but maybe just maybe the ones that truly love the game well their sprit is always out there making the next play.

Hank threw the ball to me at about two years old and not just a sling like a toddler will do but a straight over hand throw and Nancy and I were both like oh wow we have a ball player. He played at The Y for T Ball then little League then All Stars, then Travel Baseball then Middle School, then High School then Show Case Camps for prospects and then College. At one point around twelve years old he played in nearly a hundred games in one season. So yes there has been many an hour spent on ball diamonds by the Pressley’s.

Last year Hank appeared in several fall ball games for Wabash College and was set to travel with the varsity team as a freshman when he broke his leg in two places I knew his career was in jeopardy but he rehabbed worked out all off season and came back as strong as I had seen him and with one sixty yard sprint this last week a torn hamstring and back out for the fall I knew before he said the words I had seen his last game.

So just like the lights on the field a sound goes off in my head and nothing but the memory’s left to replay over and over like the spirits of the other players who love the game they just keep playing. Thank you Hank for giving me nearly eight teen years of watching you play at a very high level and always with a passion that you wore on your sleeve. Once a Baseball guy always a Baseball guy, I love you son and I am proud of you. Touch-em all son, Touch-em all. 

The love you know if handled correctly grows and matures and blossoms.

You see a girl on the showroom at work and she smiles at you her cheeks rise up so high that her beautiful blue eyes disappear and your first thoughts are more on the side of lust than love but these thoughts are different they actually take root in your mind and heart they don’t just disappear like the other girls that are cute you notice while walking through a normal day these thoughts stay and become feelings and emotions and desire these thoughts take root.

Your first child arrives and everyone in the world has told you how much you will love them and yet you have no understanding of what they have said until in the delivery room you are handed that child and with no delay tears flow down your face because a new love different than any other you have known a love that cannot be contained or wavered feels your heart again a heart that did not know of such a love one that says to the world this is my child and I will protect and love this child forever and no one or thing will ever change that.

Your other children come and on each arrival the same love as before yet different because your heart just keeps growing and making room for another it is a love that knows we are now making a statement to the world we are a family.

Then your grand baby is placed in your arms and this time you were prepared for that strength you have embraced that is found in love but you had no idea that once again the love you have has no limits and is strong as ever it is as beautiful emotion as you will ever know it is the love that started nearly twenty seven years before with the girl with blue eyes that has grown, matured and blossomed into a family tree that has roots that no person or thing could ever un-root no this love has taken hold and it grows like any other living thing that has been properly taken care of. Yes there are storms along the way but like any living thing a storm will damage it bend it and maybe even hurt it but with the proper care Love Grows.

To see your wife hold that grandchild nearly twenty five years after seeing her hold your own child you see a glow on her that is as beautiful as the first day you saw her it is one now on a woman who has paid her sacrifices to a world that will try and get in the way of a family trying to grow and she has beat that world at every turn and has a love in her  for a family that she has grown that only matches your own and you can only think Thank You Lord for this is perfect love.