Unbridled Joy
I was out for a walk on a sunny Saturday morning and happened to pass our local middle school. Adjacent to the school is a park with a baseball field. As I neared the field on my right, it appeared to be the final inning of a t-ball game. The players were young, maybe five years old-- you know the age, when the bat is as long as the child is tall.
A little slugger got up to the plate. His coach carefully placed the baseball on the tee and returned to the pitcher’s mound. The boy swung and missed the ball altogether. He repositioned his feet, tucked the bat between his legs, clapped his hands several times, picked the bat back up, banged it twice on home plate, then swung again with all the determination in the world.
This time he nailed it!
The ball went high into the air. It seemed from my angle that the kid had hit a homerun. I watched the ball spin and soar over the right-fielder and roll toward the chain-link fence. The coach started waving his arms for the boy to run.
The boy’s legs went so fast as he rounded first base and then second. All the while, he was still clutching his bat.
As he approached third base, not only was the coach still cheering, but all the boy’s teammates were jumping up and down and screaming as well. I found myself doing the same: “Go, go, go buddy!” I yelled as the little guy threw his body across home plate, slid in the dust, with his bat rolling to the side. In seconds, the entire team piled on top of him. I got all choked up witnessing the scene—and didn’t even know the people!
What I saw in that brief moment was unbridled joy.
The boy’s routine at the plate, followed by the hit, and his enthusiastic running of the bases, encouraged by the wild cheering of the coach, players, and parents—it was just awesome. It’s a feeling that everyone needs to experience once in a while, right?
On Saturday night, we hosted a Girls Night Out and invited 10 country music fans to join us for the last country concert of the season. We take our country concerts seriously: from tailgating in the parking lot at 5:30, to the VIP tent arrival at 7:00, followed by the three-band concert that ended at 11pm— we try to make every detail of the evening fun and special for our guests.
As each person arrived for our tailgating party, there was a brief but awkward moment where many of them had to introduce themselves to one another. We proceeded to have snacks, pour drinks, and soon our group started to loosen up. The synergy among us started to become palpable. By the time the opening band kicked off their first song, we were all dancing and laughing and hanging out like old friends.
There was a moment in the evening when I noticed that every single one of our guests had their hands in the air, mouths open and singing with enthusiasm, every single one sweating in the August humidity, and having the time of their lives. Maureen, who was standing next to me, noticed the moment at exactly the same time I did. “Do you see what’s happening here?” she asked. “Look at their faces! This is unbridled joy!”
My thoughts exactly.
When was the last time you experienced unbridled joy? What could you do to encourage this feeling? We all need this.
What about driving in your convertible on a cool fall night, cranking up your favorite tunes and singing with someone you love? Or making a spontaneous trip across country to hold your first grandchild? What if you said yes to the parasailing excursion on your upcoming Caribbean vacation? These could all be joyous moments. And we all need experiences like this to remind us to relax, let go, be a kid again.
There’s nothing like the feeling of unbridled joy. Your willingness to completely let go will inevitably evoke a sense of vitality and freedom.
And don’t we all deserve a little of that right now?
