Small Opportunities To Be Grateful
Earlier this week, I made a last-minute decision to get tickets for the Inter Miami v. Chicago Fire MLS Soccer match with hopes of Roman and Leo to see Lionel Messi play in person, which was not a guarantee since he had missed the previous four matches with a speculated hamstring injury. It was a risk I was willing to take because the worst-case scenario was I would get to steal some more time with Roman and Leo and spend an evening watching soccer at Soldier Field under the Chicago skyline.
When I first purchased the tickets, I didn’t tell the boys about Messi’s injury because I was hoping my positive energy and belief we’d see Messi would be rewarded by the Universe, but by Tuesday afternoon, I was pretty confident that we would not get a chance to see the legend this time. I decided to tell them Tuesday afternoon so they could process the disappointment and not be surprised at the venue (we’ve had this happen before).
Leo was more disappointed than Roman; soccer is Leo’s favorite, and best, sport and Messi is his favorite player, so his disappointment was to be expected, and when he said he no longer wanted to go, I saw the opportunity to help him be grateful, even if life didn’t deliver the outcome he desired.
In the grand scheme of things, not seeing Messi play is a disappointment but not any sort of hardship.
I explained to Leo that I was disappointed too but that we were still going. This letdown was just an example of how life will provide us with experiences that we have no control over–Messi not playing was out of our control. But we did have control over how we received the experience and moved forward. I told Leo we could:
Mope, be mad, not go, and be out of the money that was spent.
Mope, be mad, go, but not enjoy the day because we’re mad that Messi wasn’t going to play.
Be grateful that we have tickets, be grateful they would get out of school early, be grateful for the forecasted beautiful weather, be grateful for the time with each other, and enjoy whatever game we saw.
We obviously chose number three, and since we had all moved past the disappointment (still holding on to a bit of hope that Messi might be on the pitch for a short time), we shifted our energy towards excitement for the early release, trip, and time together, we had a memorable time.
It was more fun than I could have hoped for; we saw an exciting 4-1 match with all of the scoring happening in the second half. We had great seats despite being up high. The weather was perfect for an outdoor match. And we ended up having a half day to hang out together without many distractions.
I can only hope not seeing Messi play is the worst thing Leo experiences in his life, but I know it will not be. However, I hope last night’s experience, while only being a small opportunity to be grateful, helps form the foundation for how he (and Roman) handle life’s unexpected experiences ahead of them.
There is always an opportunity to find the silver lining and shift your focus toward the positive in any situation, even if that positive is minuscule. The more you do this, the easier it becomes, and even the biggest disappointments in life become an experience you are grateful for.
You might even end up with a positive experience.
See you tomorrow and keep pursuing,
JC
