Being Fully Present

Imagine if all of us saw the world through the eyes of a child.  Especially the very smart seven year old little boy I sat next to yesterday.

I attended an Ohio High School Division I District Championship game on Saturday.  Westerville Central High School was playing Northland High School out of Columbus.  Northland is the #1 team in the country.  One of their players, Jared Sullinger, is the National High School Player of the Year.  Central had their hands full, to say the least.

Sitting next to me was just the cutest little boy.  I’m an old softie when it comes to little kids, so I started talking to him:

Me: How old are you?

Little boy: Seven.  But I’m almost eight. 

Me: You are? Do you have a birthday coming up soon? 

Little boy: Yes, in July!

Hmmm…  I guess that’s soon if you’re seven, almost eight!

Westerville Central was only down by one point after the first quarter.  The guys played really hard, but by halftime they were down by seven, and the margin got wider from there.

In the third quarter, the game got out of hand as Northland outscored Central 22-3.  Central was playing harder than I’ve seen them play all year, but they were no match for Northland.  At some point early in the quarter, Sullinger made a statement dunk that made the crowd go wild.  The following conversation took place between me and the little boy:

Little boy: Wow, that was a really great shot!  They’re playing really well.

Me: That was a good shot, but it wasn’t the right team!

Little boy (with a very puzzled look on his face): It wasn’t the right team?

Me: No.  We want Westerville Central to win.  That was a great shot, but he plays for the other team.

Little boy: Ma’am, the main thing is to just have fun!  And I had fun watching that shot!

Me (laughing): You are one smart boy.

Seven years old, almost eight.

As the fourth quarter began, Westerville Central was down by 28 points.  The smart little boy looked up at the scoreboard and said, “Well, whoever plays really hard for the rest of the game and scores the most points is going to win.”  It sounded so simple, coming from a seven year old, almost eight.

Northland finally put in their second team players in with about two minutes left in the game.  Central made a few quick baskets, the score got closer and it was finally under 20 points.  The little boy sitting next to me got very excited, bouncing up and down in his seat:

Little boy: Look, it’s getting closer!  We might win!

Me: It is getting closer, but I don’t think there is enough time left for us to win.

Little boy: Sure there is.  All we have to do is make a bunch of baskets, and score a lot of points before time runs out.

Me: But there’s only 20 seconds left.

Little boy: Then we better run really fast!

Well, needless to say, we didn’t run fast enough to score that many points in twenty seconds!  Westerville Central did not win the district title.  But, as the announcer said before the medals were handed out, “There is no shame in playing hard and losing to the number one team in the country.”

One more snippet of wisdom from the little boy.  At the end of the game, we had this brief conversation:

Little boy: That was fun!  I had a lot of fun watching the game. 

Me: I had fun, too, watching the game with you.

Little boy: Maybe next time they’ll win.  Then everyone will have fun!  Bye!

Here’s a question to consider: At what point in our lives do so many of us lose the enthusiasm, the positive attitude, and the hopefulness of possibility thinking?

Imagine the possibilities if we all looked at the world through the eyes of a child.  Especially this very smart seven year old little boy, almost eight.