The Benefits of Losing

I drove to the early morning second dog show day, noticing the leaves were a little sparser, the colors a little less brilliant. It was still a gorgeous drive through the country, but clear that fall was fading, and the season of chapped lips was upon us.

I wonder if the trees mind losing their leaves? Loss is such a hard thing to take. Growing and flourishing and winning... all that is easy. Anyone can win. However, everyone will lose, just like those trees, but not everyone does either with grace and wisdom.

Honeybun and Asherel were again in the first class of the day and the last class. Polly, our beloved mentor, sat with us as Asherel stood on deck. It was a difficult jumpers course, lots of tight turns and potential pitfalls to confuse the dog if the handler were not steady. The weaves were at the very end. To my delight and surprise, Asherel negotiated the course beautifully. She bobbled a rear cross (don't ask me to explain- go to an agility show. You'll have fun) which cost her some time, but thus far no faults. Then she hit the weaves, with just two jumps left for a perfect run. Honeybun popped out of the weave immediately, so Asherel had to start her back again. One fault is allowed in Open level, which is the level Asherel is running, but the time factor of restarting the weaves can be deadly. If overtime with one fault, she would be NQ'ed. This means "not qualify", not "not Cute" which of course does not apply to either Honeybun or Asherel.
"Drat!" I said as she missed the weave. She did go on to perfectly complete the end, and thus had run very well, and certainly had a shot at qualifying.
As it turned out, she was just overtime, and missed a coveted "Q".  She had run well, and had had moments of brilliance. She was learning and gaining experience, and had a lovely attitude, win or lose. But still, checking off those "Q's" and bringing home ribbons to dust is surprisingly more fun.....
"That's ok," said Polly, "She will learn from her failures! You always learn more from your failures. What do you ever learn from winning?"
"Joy, delight, how good it feels..." I said.
"That's savoring," countered Polly, "Not learning. There is a difference."

And there is a difference. I think we would all be liars if we said we would rather lose than win. Savoring is a really nice verb, especially when applied to our life. But it is true that the things that promote the most change are usually the things that have hurt us most. It is sadly often not til we lose something that we realize how much we loved it, whether it is youth, health, beauty, the car keys, or the last brilliant golden leaf clinging tenaciously to the near naked tree. And when we lose, we say, "What can I do better?" (or at least, we should).  When we win, we pat ourselves on the back and forget we are imperfect.

We are almost never in control of winning or losing... there is always someone out there who will be better, smarter, prettier. Learning how to lose is perhaps the most important skill we need to make it through to the end. Learning how to savor what we have is one of the most important skills we need for contentment.

 I thought of how the one constant in my life is the nearness of God. He is always enveloping me, and yet how often do I savor the bounty of His grace, mercy, provision, and Presence? Long periods of time sometimes go by when I forget He is there, but I notice all the disappointments of an imperfect haircut.

While waiting for Asherel's last class, she bought Honeybun a Santa hat. The ever-compliant little dog walked through the prim and proper conformation show arena, with the competitors dressed in their Sunday best, wearing a Santa hat. Asherel and I chuckled the whole time, as everyone we passed pointed and smiled. It wasn't a ribbon, it wasn't that elusive and highly desired "Q", but it was savoring. It was savoring life, and joy, and a little dog and a wonderful girl with very big hearts.

"See how we are spreading joy?" laughed Asherel.

Psalm 37: 23-24
²³ The LORD makes firm the steps
   of the one who delights in him;
²⁴ though he may stumble, he will not fall,
   for the LORD upholds him with his hand.

Cosmic Consequences

With the Giants the new World Series champions, we can now go guitar shopping. Asherel was quick to remind Arvo as the Giants began flooding the baseball field, spitting sunflower seeds like confetti and leaping victoriously on each other's heads that per his promise, she was now owed a celebratory guitar.

But it will have to wait til tomorrow. Today, for the 13th year in a row (or so) we will run a Kids Voting booth. We are asked to do so little to keep this democracy running. Pay taxes, be informed, and vote. I guarantee more people know the exact statistics of every major league batter better than the Bill of Rights. We are so good at excuses- let some one else be informed and vote. Let someone else pay for my health care, for my retirement, for my chocolate bon bons.  Running the Kids Voting booth is my little way of saying "Informed voting matters. It is a duty and a privilege. And you get a cute sticker that says you voted."  The research seems to indicate that in countries where mock voting for kids is promoted, the kids tend to grow up and vote. I feel like I am investing in the future of my country.

Election Day for our family has always been a big deal. We gather around the television as the polls return with markable maps in hand. Anders, our oldest, was fanatic about staying up til the wee hours of the morning on presidential election nights, marking the states red or blue and counting electoral votes. We buy special dinners, cheer our team on when they are winning, and despair when they are losing. This is an event with consequences though, and more than a guitar is riding on the results.

Choices matter. Today we get to choose who will serve us in this wonderful country that I sometimes fear is collapsing from within. We have to wait til the first Tuesday in November to make that choice each year. But God gives us a choice every day. I love how Joshua reminds his people that the most important choice for leadership they will ever make they can make NOW. This day the choice is spread before you.
And the reward for the winners in that cosmic election will be plucking strings to a heavenly choir. The losing team  will find their strings a little too hot to pluck.

Joshua 24: 15
But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.”

Art is Not a Horse Race

The Kentucky Derby coincided this year with the last day for entries for the first National Hollow Creek Farm Children's Art Contest. I am one of three judges for that. Asherel and I, as we do every year, settled down with a yummy dinner 2 hours before the actual Derby run, and then listened to every tantalizing tidbit about the horses, the jockeys, the owners, the trainers, the past Derby horses, former jockeys, former owners and former trainers, and the future Derby horses, future owners, and future trainers. I am not allowed to speak during the Derby indoctrination session, as Asherel is studiously listening, remembering and filing away every minuscule fact she hears. If she would concentrate one tenth so hard on schoolwork, she'd be in post-graduate school by now.

So I took the time to sketch on my iPod, preparing myself for Round One of the art contest judging after the Derby. The Derby was wonderfully exciting, with history made as jockey Cal won his third Derby on a horse not expected to win, but the winner was unambiguous. The first horse across the line won, no subjective argument about who ran the winning race.

On to the art contest judging and a whole different scenario paints itself. All the artwork is lined up by age groups and the only information I have on each is the name of the HCF animal the piece portrays, and the person's age group. I do have an "objective" judging criteria sheet, with a certain number of points each artist can earn in 5 categories....but as soon as I looked at the first piece, I knew I was doomed. I wanted to give it the perfect 50 points.... but then what if the next piece was better? And can anyone reach perfection in art... and if they can't, how do you assign objective points to such a subjective endeavor?

"I know," I told my assistant, "Let's just throw them all across the room, and the one who lands furthest wins."
"This isn't a horse race," said Asherel.
OK, all you art entrants, don't panic. I made that part up. I didn't say it... but I did think it.

How do you not give points to a clumsily drawn picture that captures completely the essence of the animal he drew? Or how do you judge between three of the most exquisitely drawn dogs I have ever seen, all in different mediums? I praise God there are three judges, because I want to give each entrant first place.

I honestly had no favorites. Each piece carried such a spark of love, and joy, and bubbling creativity that each one I looked at was like a new flower, created just for that nuance of smell that only it can give. I hope each artist understands that, whether they win or not. I had never realized how hard it is to pick just one winner in an art contest. Now I have a little better sense of why God urges us all to work towards the Prize, the goal, the eternal award. If He were to choose only one of His creation to win, how could He? So we all get to win if we press on towards the goal. And the Judge isn't assigning points- He is cheering and standing at the Finish Line with open arms.


Phillippians 3: 13-14
¹³Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, ¹⁴I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.