When Dribbling, Keep Head Up

I painfully recall the words of my jr. high soccer coach. "Chris, if I have to prop up your chin with a stick, you're going to keep your head up when you dribble." My bad habit of fixating on the ball while I dribbled was driving him nuts. Apparently, he was all stressed out about "passing" or something. Eventually I realized that it's hard to play with a team when you can't see your teammates. The only people I was even aware of were those who intruded my shrunken peripheral vision, and they were enemies.

I think my life in general has become that way the last few years. In fact, I think this is the normal human inclination. I'm so focused on myself, that I can't see the beautiful people around me. Those who need love, and those who offer it. I've simply grown embittered about my own gaping needs.

Thank God for St. Francis. This prayer of his has become my daily meditation. Like a stick propped under the chin, it is helping me look up.

Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace.
Where there is hatred . . . let me sow love
Where there is injury . . . pardon
Where there is doubt . . . faith
Where there is despair . . . hope
Where there is darkness . . . light
Where there is sadness . . . joy

O, Divine Master,
Grant that I may not so much seek
To be consoled . . . as to console
To be understood . . . as to understand,
To be loved . . . as to love
For it is in giving . . . that we receive,
It is in pardoning, that we are pardoned,
It is in dying . . . that we are born to eternal life.