Folks, you’ve got to take it one game at a time, one hitter at a time. You’ve got to go on doing the things you’ve talked about and agreed about beforehand. You can’t get three outs at a time or five runs at a time.

You’ve got to concentrate on each play, each hitter and each pitch. All this makes the game much slower and much clearer. It breaks it down to its smallest part.

If you take the game like that – one pitch, one hitter, one inning at a time and then one game at a time – the next thing you know, you look up and you’ve won.

This is a quote from Rick Dempsey, baseball catcher.

Now folks, I have been giving this some thought. I know very little about sports, truthfully.

Guess I was just too occupied to slow down and learn. More like, if I had any spare time, I had my head in a book.

I gave it a try. I really tried to watch it on T.V. with my son and my husband. However, I did not stay with it long enough to get interested.

Best I remember, I gave in and went down the street and took a class in ceramics. But, this writing by this Rick Dempsey kept calling me back.

Couldn’t the same thing be said about life? Take life one day at a time, one task at a time?

No way can one live three days at a time, or do three things at a time. Sometimes it felt like I tried.

Yup and it is sure to make the game of life seem much slower and less confusing and, surely more enjoyable.

I have heard this many times: Live in the moment.

Now, that is something I have to work at. Seems I’m always thinking ahead, and planning ahead.

Maybe both could be done you think? Plan ahead, but then enjoy the moment!

Dale Carnegia said, “One of the most tragic things about human nature is that all of us tend to put off living.”

We are all dreaming of some magic rose garden over the horizon, instead of enjoying the roses that bloom outside our window today. Ok! I get it!

At one point during a game, the coach called one of his nine-year-old baseball players aside and asked, “Do you understand what cooperation is? What a team is?”

“Yes, coach,” replied the little boy. “Do you understand what matters is whether we win or lose as a team?” the coach asked.

The little boy nodded in the affirmative.

“So,” the coach continued, “I’m sure you know, when an out is called, you shouldn’t argue, yell at the umpire or call him a jerk. Do you understand that?” Again, the little boy nodded in the affirmative.

The coach continued, “And when I take you out of the game so that another boy gets a chance to play, it’s not a stupid decision or that the coach is a butthead is it?”

“No coach.” “Good,” said the coach. “Now go over there and explain all that to your grandmother!”

Boy howdy!!