Pickleball is quite the thing these days, isn’t it? Something of a mix of tennis, badminton, and ping pong. But slick paddles. A smaller court. Different rules. Competitive fun, nonetheless. Leagues have sprung up everywhere. Recreation departments are accommodating them. Tournaments are happening regularly. Players are seen daily serving, swinging, swatting, and surging on courts across the country. The makers of the specialized equipment are no doubt rejoicing in the sport’s popularity. Quite the racket.
Many of us swing invisible paddles and rackets on a regular basis and often unawares. Here are some examples. A coworker lobs a compliment in your direction during a staff meeting but you refuse to take it in. You swat it aside, deflecting its ego-strengthening deliciousness and all but denying its veracity. Or a friend treats you to lunch, and you pitch a fit and come close to tackling him on his way to pay rather than absorbing the kindness and basking in your friend’s pleasure. Or a child down the street draws a picture of you working in your yard surrounded by her hearts of adoration and delivers it to your door with a crooked grin. In your discomfort, you bounce off her admiration with your invisible paddle, causing the grin to evaporate on the spot. Quite the racket in so many ways.
There’s first the racket that goes on in our heads when something wonderful and unexpected comes our way. We prefer to earn such goodness, thank you very much. In our minds, we’re not deserving. And our hearts are too crowded with doubts to let much affirmation through the door. Our knee-jerk response might be to question others’ unexpressed motives. Yet do we not long for our peers’ acknowledgement? Do we not seek the appreciation of others? Do we not hunger for affection? Are these not almost as essential to our wellbeing as clean air and available water and freshly baked bread?
And there’s the racket of habitual behavior. We do it again and again and even after we’re called out on it. We might try to change, half-heartedly reading a few self-help books. But we like our paddles and rackets, and it can be just too uncomfortable for us to receive unmerited, life-giving gifts into our hands, heads, and hearts. Quite a racket indeed.
Are there not weapons enough in the world for us to yield our paddles and rackets, wielding open hands, porous minds, and expansive hearts instead? Imagine a life of practicing on the courts of gratitude, serving up grace, and urging the surging of love! That would be one sweet pickle we’d all have a ball finding ourselves in!
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