Time of My Life

There's a lot of negativity in the world and, if you let it, a lot to feel bad or anxious about most of the time. There are leadership vacuums, there's demagoguery, and, yes, there's the feeling that you can be a hamster on a wheel in the working world when your retirement savings have plummeted and there aren't great signs that the markets are going to recover in a big way any time soon.

You have choices, though, as to what you permit to have power over you. No one will argue that these are tough times -- they're tough for people all around us and around the world. But that doesn't mean we should stop living or focus too much of our energy on things we cannot control, such as the whims of politicians or the tides of the financial markets. We also have our friends and our families, and that leads me to a short vignette.

I took a half day off yesterday, and the weather in the mid-Atlantic region was terrific -- sunny, low sixties, not too much wind. After having a long, fun and relaxing lunch with my family, I took my daughter to our local softball fields to practice. We were the only ones there, and I spent about an hour and a half hitting grounders to her, pitching batting practice and helping her get more power into her swing, and catching her pitches. She's eleven, young for her grade in school but big for her age, and she has some physical gifts -- she's strong with a strong arm.

So there we were, just a dad and his daughter, playing catch, fielding grounds and popups, hitting and pitching. It was a great practice session on a beautiful day. We were patient with each other (sometimes parent-child coaching sessions don't go as smoothly as either participant would like), laughed, and worked on improving her game. We talked about situations in the field, we talked about the approach to pitching (read: you want to get everyone out, even if they sit next to you in social studies and are nice), and the approach to hitting (you want to hit the ball with power past the fielders, even if they once were in your Brownie troop).

My daughter is growing up, getting bigger, getting more focused. It was fun to see her reel off a string of solid strikes that wended their way over home plate with authority, although we both acknowledge she has a ways to go in terms of consistency. Likewise, it was fun at the end of our hitting session to see her lash two hard liners right through the pitcher's mound, causing a dancing-challenged middle-aged man to jump quickly to avoid getting hit. Again, there was improvement, with room for more.

At the end of our session, we gathered our belongings, talked about what we accomplished, and then headed to a local ice cream and water ice joint. When we walked in, we heard David Cook's "Time of My Life" on the radio. It's a moving song, Cook sang it on "American Idol", and the Phillies used it to accompany the last part of their 2008 highlight film. And then it hit me.

Right then, right there, that it's moments and sessions like these that we need to strive for more often. Just a dad and his daughter, on a beautiful day, playing softball. No crowds, lines, traffic, bad news, just the outdoors and two people doing something they like with people they love.

Because at that moment, I realized how special that afternoon softball session was to my daughter and me, followed by the reward of a refreshing treat. Right then and there, I was having one of many times of my life.

Remember those moments, look for opportunities to have them, and cherish every one of them. Because it's those moments -- and not measurements caused by factors that we cannot control -- that make life so worth living and so enriching. You can control many of the important things in your life -- just be sure that you take the time to do so.

Because then, not only will you be living your own life, but you'll be deriving much enjoyment from it too.