Volleyball High

Michael and my aunt Paula (as well as all their colleagues and friends) have welcomed me into the ritual of park volleyball. Game after game, whether the team I'm on wins or loses, I feel invigorated for a total effect of leaving on a volleyball high. I feel like I could play forever. Today the games started at 3:30 and ended at 7:30. I imagine the group would have kept playing if enough people didn't have to go home to responsibilities. I know it would have taken nothing more than the request for another game to keep me going.

For someone like me who is constantly aware of time it is such a gift to find an activity that engages me in an entirely different way. More than once I have played past evening dates, unaware of the time passing. I lose myself in these games. Another gift is the gift of constantly changing teams. Nothing seems fixed. You get to play with everyone. Sometimes I feel like a strong player and other times a weaker link. But it is all fun. People give friendly advice that makes me want to play better. People encourage each other's efforts as much as they tease, both lovingly. People laugh. People bring their kids who play in that old fashion imagination way. I love every moment of it and I leave with a kind of high, what I have come to call the volleyball high.