The Hard

Jimmy Dugan: Taking a little day trip?
Dottie Hinson: No, Bob and I are driving home. To Oregon.
Jimmy Dugan: [long pause] You know, I really thought you were a ballplayer.
Dottie Hinson: Well, you were wrong.
Jimmy Dugan: Was I?
Dottie Hinson: Yeah. It is only a game, Jimmy. It's only a game, and, and, I don't need this. I have Bob; I don't need this. At all.
Jimmy Dugan: I, I gave away five years at the end my career to drink. Five years. And now there isn't anything I wouldn't give to get back any one day of it.
Dottie Hinson: Well, we're different.
Jimmy Dugan: Shit, Dottie, if you want to go back to Oregon and make a hundred babies, great, I'm in no position to tell anyone how to live. But sneaking out like this, quitting, you'll regret it for the rest of your life. Baseball is what gets inside you. It's what lights you up, you can't deny that.
Dottie Hinson: It just got too hard.
Jimmy Dugan : It's supposed to be hard. If it wasn't hard, everyone would do it. The hard... is what makes it great.

I am sure we all have had moments in life where we have become so overwhelmed to the point where we end up doing nothing. We just want to go under the covers and hide from the world. We run into brick walls and fall. We get to a point where we just want to ram our heads into that wall so we don't have to endure any more of the pain we find ourselves in.

Times get tough. Very tough. Tougher than you ever imagined! There are times where we have problems in our lives and we feel like we have no answers left. Ever felt that way? I am sure we all have felt it before, a lot of us feel it now, and/or will feel it eventually. Hard times come upon everyone all the time. 

What keeps us going? Well goals and dreams can keep us going. When we work for something we really want to produce or accomplish, we get the drive to keep going. I remember when I was looking to open my own school, I had many moments where I would ask "What was I thinking trying to do this!?" or "Oh my gosh I don't know if I can!" and "I don't want to keep going through this." I had my moments, as well all do. I try very hard not to be human and I realize in those moments how human I am. I don't like it. But it's the reality of life. 

Other people are another reason we keep going. People who count on us, whether it be your children, your family, your students, your friends, your wives, your husbands, your significant other, we have to keep going for them. Let's face it, sometimes we will go to the end of the earth for the people we love and will cut things short for ourselves. It happens all the time. 

I know I have definitely had my share of hard times. Many in which I had accrued myself, some times couldn't help, some of those times were necessary to go through, some hard times had solutions, some hard times caused a lot of pain. I often think of what Sifu told me about how "Only great things come out of chaos" and we have to go through our processes that are necessary. I heard recently that God never said our processes we go through will be easy, but he did promise it would be worth it. 

Me personally, I will get to a point during hard times where I want to really just throw a tantrum and cross my arms and say NO! I don't wanna! But that's not how I roll. And a true master welcomes all challenges. I fer, like most people, failure and disappointment. Both are necessary in our growth in life and the development of who we are supposed to be. I think of the point in the movie A League of Their Own when Coach Dugan yells at Dottie Hinson about her giving up on playing baseball before the league is up. He says he never took her for a quitter and she finally admits "It just got too hard." And Dugan says "The hard...is what makes it great." 

Of course he was referring to baseball, but I guess that can relate to life as well. It's the HARD that makes it so great. we can't always see it. We sometimes refuse to see it. We don't want to, we get tired of it, we don't want to participate, or we do complete opposite. Either way, life goes on. And it's the truth. I continue to defy gravity, go against the current, beat the odds, and welcome the challenges. Meanwhile, I will also pray to God I have the courage, wisdom, and strength to get through "the Hard" as best as I can. And so should you.

Yours in service,

A TRENTO