Tennis, anyone?

As a kid I was terrible at tennis. So bad that at summer camp I opted to be “manager” rather than try to hold my own against talented peers. Fast forward many years to a camp reunion in 2017 and I found myself back on the court. This time, I went for it and participated. The counselor fed us some balls. I was able to hit the balls. I had fun. In the time since then I've surprised myself by often thinking about tennis. During the pandemic the idea of playing kept popping up. Maybe because I moved to a town where tennis whites are pretty common, who knows.

Recently I read Open and despite not really caring about the tennis aspects of the book, the sport once again was top of mind. Then I listened to a podcast by my guru Martha Beck and she recommended following "threads of sweetness." I thought, playing tennis sounds sweet. I finally booked a lesson. It was so fun. I was giddy just to be hitting balls. The tennis pro probably thinks I'm nuts. "How are you feeling?" she asked. "This is just SO fun!" I yelled across the court. And it turns out - I'm not bad at tennis at all. At my first lesson I was apparently hitting shots with topspin, nothing into the net. Perhaps if I had tried back in the day, believed in myself, I would've realized tennis is for me. Or maybe I'm just meant to enjoy this sweet sport at this point in my life. Whatever my path, I'm grateful I've opted into playing now. Even a half hour, once/week of hitting balls brings me immense joy.

AES