Archive for 2015
The Three Crowns, The Holiday Season, and Conquering Fear
Dear Tennis & Life Friends, Tennis & Life Camps’ campers are a wide cross section of Republicans and Democrats, Liberals and Conservatives, Independents and Libertarians. Muslims. And Jews. And Christians. And atheists. Buddhists and Hindus. Agnostics. People who identify themselves as spiritual but not affiliated with a religion. And every color of the rainbow. On […]
Thankful for the Pain?
Can we be thankful for the pain in our lives? Last week, our swimmer daughter, Madeline, found out she might be pulled from her relay team (which she had swam on all year) and replaced by a teammate, literally the day before section finals. This was a relay team destined for state and a Minneapolis […]
The Gift of the Double Bagel
I love to win. And I have sometimes done things in my life in order to win that I am not proud of. That is for a future blog. But it is the background information you should know for this one. Monday night, my doubles partner and I were the deciding point in our USTA […]
One Point Said It All
The Minnesota State High School Girls Tennis Tournament just ended last week. 83 TLC girls were in it. 5 out of 6 individual champions were TLCers. These girls are my heroes. But not for the reason I would have stated when I was younger. Watching them play, I now know what is possible. I watched […]
On Saying Goodbye and Saying Hello
Yesterday was the last day of summer camps. We are saying goodbye. And we are saying hello. We are saying goodbye to our first summer without Steve. And saying hello to our commitment to continue, carry on, and expand the TLC vision he began and we believe in. We are saying goodbye to the #7 rated […]
On Suffering and The Three Crowns
I have had so much fun this summer. But this week, I have been particularly struck by the heartache we all experience in life. No one escapes. One camper has severe ADHD, another suffers from debilitating anxiety, another is deeply grieving the loss of a friend who died in an accident recently, another has a […]
On Family
I love family camp. All shapes, sizes, ages, and abilities thrown into a melting pot. The love – or sometimes rediscovered love – parents have for their kids come out in surprising ways. And vice versa. By the end, we become like one, big, family. It no longer surprises me, but it still makes me […]
On Sportsmanship
One of our tournament camp players this week played a magnificent point during a match, until the end, when he chunked an easy shot into the net. In his frustration and anger and disappointment, he bounced his racket off the court gritted his teeth and yelled. We talked quietly on the sideline about possible alternatives […]
On Rest
24/7. Many of us are so proud to say that’s how many hours we work in a week. “Being busy” is valued above all else. And yet, being busy can be the most counterproductive thing we do, if it is not accompanied by rest. I remember when I was in high school I was proud […]
On Feeling Safe
None of us will come out of our shells if we think someone will hurt us. Or make fun of us. Or demean us. We will grow up becoming more and more protective and wary. It is a natural reaction to say “I’m not letting you in” if we have had people break our trust […]