so what does it for you??

This morning, 8/13/11, I had the opportunity to ref some fine and fantastic U-10/U-11 boys hockey games.  I say fine and fantastic because today I was dealt a ‘blow’ I wasn’t quite expecting!!  You see I am so used to hearing coaches screaming, bitching and down right not having a good time, so when I heard “this” I was floored……thankfully NOT literally!!

It was my second game of the morning, a team from ND and a team from northern MN.  It was an OK game, nothing too exciting.  The team from Northern MN appeared to have had their Wheaties for breakfast and were rather aggressive, but the ND team was dominating…..playing the game with skill vs brute force!!  This is when I skated past the ND bench and one of the kids was complaining about something and the coach said to him, “Hey, you’re not guaranteed another day, so make the best of each and every day and make it FUN!!!”

The reason this floored me was because 1) he wasn’t yelling at me about the roughness of the other team, 2) yelling at the kid to ‘man up’ and do likewise to the other team (yes I have heard many coaches say this to 9 and 10 year olds), and 3) this coach, as were all 3 coaches, was a college student, a youngster, who usually give the most grief to refs.  And here he was telling this kid to just HAVE FUN!!!!!!  Which leads to 4) a coach ACTUALLY telling the kids to have fun, not screaming at them, not telling them they were useless or should have done this or that.  Just to have FUN!!!

I’ll never know if there was a reason this guy said this to the kids, had he lost someone recently that made him evaluate life and what was important??  Is this the way he was raised??  No matter what the reason, that statement from that coach to that kid had an impact on me!!  And as I skated up and down the ice, calling icing, tripping, offsides, etc.
I was thinking to myself what can I do to make today FUN??  How do I make the most of each and everyday?

Lets be honest, we don’t always make the best of EVERYDAY we are given and we don’t always look for what can make our days fun…….at least I don’t!!  So in thinking of this I came up with some things that make my days fun………that make my days reasons to carry on…….that makes me value each and everyday I am given here on God’s green earth!!

My family

My family, albeit I don’t see them very much, are still a reason I value life, and when I do get to be with them I strive to make each and every moment as FUN as possible, I make memories, and I cherish them!!  A couple of pictures of these memories are below:

My girlfriend

Jeanna Marie Pelton makes me very, very excited to open my eyes each and every morning!!  And we have so much fun together!!!

Hockey

If you know me at all you know that I don’t need to explain anything more when I say that hockey makes me happy and I have so much FUN playing!!

Reffing

Again, as I said above with hockey!!

My friends

Without friends I think we have a gap in our hearts that needs filling.  The real friends, who you know will be there for you NO MATTER WHAT!!

My puppies

I love them as if they were my own children

What makes your days FUN???  What is your reason for making the best of everyday you are blessed with??  I hope that I think back to this moment in my life, when I heard these words and I realize how truly blessed I am to be given another day!!