Category Archives: Beauty in the Dishsoap

A category created just for my Stonecoast work…an attempt at writing only about the mundane, every day things that happen in my life – and making them compelling. Let me know how that’s going for me, would ya?

The Home Stretch

30 Saturday Apr 2016

Posted by in Beauty in the Dishsoap, Meet the Students, Stuff I Want to Tell You About

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Seven weeks left in this 2015-2016 school year.  Seven weeks.  That’s like one week in … dog weeks?

I don’t know if I can accurately express just how insane that is.  Because I met this new group of students just yesterday.  They walked a bit hesitantly into my classroom, I shook their hands, learned their names, asked them about their hobbies and their families and their favorite books… And though some of them were a lot shorter then, it’s true, it just can’t possibly be real that they’re leaving me in about the lifespan of a worker honey bee. Which I suppose is apt – because that’s what I feel like most of the time and I’m guessing they do, too.

They’re practically out the door already: all limbs and long hair, half smiles and eyes full of questions.  How did that happen?  Time, the wise turtle, kept right on passing while I, the whirlwind hare, rushed around — silly hare. And here we are, May knocking on the door and coming to stay for a month.

I’ll tell you, and I’ll try not to sway into the melodramatic here, I am going to miss these young people — who are full grown people, some of them, but with still-growing minds and ever-changing preferences — all that beautiful, mixed-up adolescent swagger.  Thoughtful, observant, opinionated, curious people.  Who, by the way, are great stewards of the world, even now.

Is it possible that regular folks don’t know how attached teachers get to students during the ups, downs, tremendous growth spurts and equally tremendous upheavals that occur during a school year? Surely I’m not the only one who feels wistful come spring.

I may not have time seven weeks from now to write again about their imprint on my life this year; a year that was not – personally – as simple or smooth as I wish they all could be.  I would like to here thank them now, then, for their kindnesses and patience, for their adventurous spirits and their unending efforts.  To engage in life and learning — that’s the goal.  These kids have hit that goal and kept soaring.  To the moon, kiddos.  To the moon.

 

Opening Day 2016

20 Wednesday Apr 2016

Posted by in Beauty in the Dishsoap, Family Ties, Stuff I Want to Tell You About

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It’s baseball season again!  You know what that means, fans.  Winter coat, wool socks, LL Bean boots and heated up coals inside the fuzzy blankets I carry up to the field day after day.  I’m kidding.  No I’m not.

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Between seasons, I forget how much I love baseball – the crack of the bat, the chatter among teammates, the slightly delayed steeeeriiiiiiike three! calls of the umps. But it all comes back to me on opening day.

And that day, my friends, is today.  April 20, 2016.

Baseball, at our house, is like a long lost relative we think about all year, and are so happy to have show up on our doorstep in spring.  It’s a favorite.  I would say it’s THE favorite, but that would be a lie.  Every sports season becomes our favorite season momentarily….though I will say here that though we love all sports the kids play, baseball does have a little special magic. And since it’s baseball season, we’re going to jump up to the third base line and cheer our hearts out.

It’s been a surprise to me how much I’ve come to love baseball in the past few years. My family always watched and loved the Red Sox (and we do not speak of my father’s affinity for the Yankees) but once my boys started playing the game, I became more than just a fair weather fan.

Look at this pic on the boys’ first day of T-Ball, 2005, a few months before Natalie was born.  They’re consulting about the pitcher, I think. Luke seems displeased with his work. 
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You can’t see them, but both of their hats are Red Sox hats, and Luke asked for those red sneakers because they were Red Sox colors.

This next pic is of the first game the boys ever saw the Sea Dogs play (and needed zero guidance about what was going on…they understood the game well.)  Again, the hats.IMG_0339

Garrett was a player for Halloween in 2006.  Those happy eyes!  No front teeth! Back when he loved Tootsie Rolls! IMG_1859

Luke, age 3 here, seemed to have been born being able to hit and throw.  His laser focus here is on his brother, to whom Guy is pitching up at THMS. Luke is so very little!  IMG_0223

This is Luke in Little League, age 11.

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This is Luke last year, pitching at Lincolnville Central School, 8th grade.  DSC_0099

And here he is this year, today in fact, again pitching.

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Garrett, here last season, has decided he’d like to play baseball in college.  We’re seeing what we can do to make that dream come true. 11230975_10205352886719809_3900918590366410709_n

Here he is this season making a double play…

13012653_1148950338490819_4156041687438165482_n…and I don’t know what this is, but I’m sure it was safer than it looks.
13006679_10207469276108221_6868106618270551867_nI jest.  Though I would NOT want to be in front of that bullet.12993446_10207502202851369_1787905961262181152_n

This year’s Varsity crew is a friendly and determined group of young men who, so far, are having a great time playing the game they love.  What else can a fan ask for?

Except maybe a little warmer weather.

Abracadabra

13 Saturday Feb 2016

Posted by in Beauty in the Dishsoap, Stuff I Want to Tell You About

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What I’ve learned about sports (as an athlete, coach and now fan) is that so, so very many things have to happen, and to go right, for a team to achieve the kind of success defined as winning games.

There are other kinds of success, of course – among them: teamwork, humility, leadership, selflessness, dedication to short and long term goals, effort, attitude, sportsmanship … and all of these are reasons to participate in team sports, win OR lose.  But once in awhile these attributes come together like cogs in a wheel compelling a machine forward.  That’s what’s happened here in Belfast this season. The team is headed to the tournament in Bangor. Congratulations, boys!

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Garrett and Nolan. Friends since age 3.  Teammates nearly as long.

What I want to talk about for a minute is those so, so very many things that have to go right that I mentioned above.  It’s no small feat to get a spot in the tournament – that’s the first thing.  It’s a big deal.  It happens all the time, every season, for some teams, or it happens to one team for several years in a row for awhile, and when we see the names of those teams in the papers we are not surprised.  Good for them.

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But here in Belfast it’s been 15 years since we’ve been at the tournament.  Not since our boys were in pre-school.  It means that for all those years in between there have been kids, parents, coaches, families, school and community support – that have played a part in its happening. People who have encouraged, pushed, sacrificed and believed that in investing in the process of learning a sport and becoming coachable athletes – that maybe they would also have WINNING success.  It wasn’t the primary goal.  But when the rest of it is done right, and the winning happens as a by-product, it is PURE MAGIC.

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This is the way it began. Not all of these boys still play – but they did their part in creating the success of the program.

This is the reason that it’s a community celebration that these kids are headed to Bangor today.  It’s why we’re hoping that everyone who can drive in this snowstorm raging outside will meet us at the gym at noon and see these boys off in style.  It’s why we’re hoping you can make it up to Bangor, sit on our side in your blue and yellow, and cheer your heart out for them.

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The boys and all the coaches they’ve had along the way (THANK YOU COACHES) deserve our biggest voices and our collective support.  Because they are a team of humble, selfless leaders with positive attitudes – and hope.  ANYTHING can happen at the tournament in Bangor, not the least of which is a #8 seed upsetting the #1.

When I say it can be done, they are not empty words one says when David is facing Goliath.  I mean:  it can be done.  By you.  

Good luck.  Have fun.  We’ve got your back.  Win or lose.

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** Photo credits: Robin Lewis **