“The Usta Days”
“The Usta
Days”
Now that summer is over and school
has begun, our calendar is beginning to fill up with activities once again.
Well, actually, most of the activities have to do with us being spectators
rather than participants! In the fall, it’s high school tennis for the
grandsons, with Nate (16) playing on the Varsity team and Elliot (14) on the Junior
Varsity team for their school.
Al and I both enjoyed playing
tennis in the past: he played competitively, while I played for fun.
Eventually, we decided that it was too demanding for our aging joints and
bodies. However, we still enjoy watching the sport, especially when it comes to
rooting for our two youngest grandsons.
The week before school started, we
drove to a high school in another district to watch Elliot’s JV team play in a
four-way tournament. It started at 8:30 in the morning, and would be over by
about 10:30…or so we speculated.
However, we miscalculated the
amount of time it would take for all of the singles and doubles teams to play
each other. We finally left for home
around 2:30 p.m. with Elliot and his doubles partner still having one more match
to play, after winning their first two matches.
While watching them, I reflected on my youth
and the blessing of being active. I took so many things for granted back then,
like having a strong, athletic body.
Bunions on both feet slowed me down for a while; however, after surgery
in my early twenties walking was less painful.
When Al and I married, summer vacations were
spent taking long backpacks, hiking many miles in the Sierra Nevada mountains
and elsewhere. He has a favorite expression that he uses to describe the things
he used to be able to do… “the usta days!”
I remember how he used to lead the
way up steep mountain peaks, telling those of us who were trailing behind,
“This is just a piece of cake!” When we finally reached the top, huffing and
puffing, we’d all glare at him and say, “That was not a piece of cake!” Fun
memories, but definitely part of the usta days!
As I sat on the bleachers watching
Elliot play, there was plenty of time to mull over the past and make a list of
my own “ustas:”
“I usta be out there playing, but
now I’m sitting on the bleachers watching.”
“I usta be able to run, skip, jump,
hike, ride a bike…but now I’m glad to be walking.”
“I usta wonder when I’d find the
time to do this or that. Now there’s enough time for this or that, and more!”
“I usta think that the quality of
one’s life consisted of going and doing; now I believe that the quality of life
is found in being.”
An interesting drawing caught my eye recently
of an elderly man and an elderly woman who had walked past each other on the
sidewalk, going different directions. Each carried a cane and was looking down
at the sidewalk, perhaps trying to avoid a fall. Neither seemed to notice the
other.
However, two shadows cast directly
behind them on the white wall of a building, told a different story. The man’s
shadow was that of a dapper young man wearing a top hat; the woman’s was of a
lady wearing a gown, reaching up as if to take hold of his extended hand in an
invitation to dance!
True joy, lasting joy in life comes
from relationships—in giving and receiving, in listening and being listened to,
in loving and in being loved… and above all, true joy is found in our
relationship to God, our heavenly Father who deeply loves us.
Why stay back in the usta days,
when the best is yet to come?
“The Lord is compassionate and
gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. He will not always accuse, nor will
he harbor his anger forever; he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay
us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the
west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. As a father has
compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him;
for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust.” Psalm 103: 8-14 NIV
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