Lights Out

Simple, yet effective concept in life - finish what you started.

Many years ago, in what seemed another lifetime - I was a church softball coach.  To be accurate I wasn’t particularly good, but I enjoyed doing it for the most part.  No pay, lots of phone calls, plenty of complaints and I always was the last to leave.

One of the things that came with the job was being there early to line and rake the infield and put the bases in the ground.  It was often lonely work, but it was like writing the foreword in a book, something that needed to be done so things get begin.  The job however I remember most fondly was turning the lights off after the game.

The peculiar thing about turning off the lights was that it was a love/hate kind of thing.   On the nights that we lost I hated it, because I just wanted to go home. Consequently I would drive my car out to the shed, which was approximately a few hundred feet from the center field fence, pull the switch, jump back in the car and dejectedly go home.  It was like putting the field to sleep, like you tuck your kids in before they go to sleep, after you had a particularly trying evening.  Love you, sleep good, goodnight and hit the switch.

However on the nights that we won, I loved turning off the lights because it was heaven.  Needless to say, in the early years that wasn’t so frequent.  On those nights I didn’t want to hit the switch and end the party.    On those nights I would walk and not drive to the shed to turn off the lights.  Time didn’t seem to matter because I wanted to bask in the glow and relive the highlights of the game in my mind.  As I would stand out past centerfield and look at the ball field, l felt like a proud father taking it all in and smilingly remembering.  Then I would turn the lights out and beamingly go home.

That reminds me of an inspirational quote entitled The Essence of A New Day.  It goes like this… This is the beginning of a new day.  You have been given this day to use as you will.  You can waste it or use it for good.  What you do today is important because you are exchanging a day of your life for it.  When tomorrow comes, this day will be gone forever; in its place is something that you have left behind…let it be something good. 

    

For me, lights out is a husband and a father’s privilege, one I have had for some twenty six years now.  It is an opportunity to momentarily evaluate the completed day.  One in which hopefully I haven’t wasted because life is too short; here one moment, gone the next.  So, someone has to turn out the lights, why not me. 

Lights out is that sacred moment when the chapter of today’s book is complete and you must put a bookmark in it till tomorrow

Swavel