Baseball & marriage?

OK, so following the worst game of my softball carer [*cough* - hobby], last week, I had only an below average two games at the double header this week. So...I called up my buddy Caleb and we went a swinging.

We went to the batting cages and I got 6 tokens ($10 worth) Each token gets you 18 pitches. Caleb pointed out to me "Think about how many games does it take you to see 18 pitches?" And in this context I can just worry about hitting them, not running, or getting someone out.

Kind of reminds me of why it is valuable to do the marriage conferences, or mentoring groups that Cara and I have enjoyed so much. They can provide a safe, focused, controlled environment where we can "see" a number of situations in a few hours that it would normally take several months to "see". In addition we can face them fresh, and with a good attitude where we would normally face them under less than ideal circumstances, and in high stress.

safe: (no one gets out)
focused: (only goal is to make contact)
controlled: (choose your timing to set your best attitude)
fresh: (avoid stress of the moment)

It gives you a chance to get back in your groove. My buddy Caleb said that baseball is a "game of streaks." You have a series of good games where you are on fire, and then you hit a slump. Sometimes you just have to shake it up and put in a little extra time in the cages to try to get back to the fundamentals, shake off the dust. The results may not be instant, but you just have to outlast the difficult moments, relax a little, and as my wife said "try to still have fun, that is why you wanted to play isn't it? Because it was fun." Soon enough you will be hitting strong again if you don't give up. Maybe marriage is the same way.

Just thinking.
Bill