The Sacred Ground

Is there a place that you can go and feel that you are right with the world? Everyone needs to find a place like that from time to time. I have been fortunate to have been able to find several different locals over the years where I knew my efforts and emotion were working in concert with my environment and I was fulfilled.

I never really put my entire effort into anything I ever did in my life until I entered graduate school. I spent my life up to that point hedging my bet with success by always holding something back. That way if I did fail, I could always tell myself that I didn't really fail because I could have done better if I had used my reserve tank. What I realize now, it was more like a reserve parachute, if you need it, only an idiot would try to save it.

My commitment to coaching was the place I first found my sacred ground. I put together what I learned in graduate school about putting everything you have into an effort and believing that you can do things you have never done before. I combined that with the teaching methods I had learned as an undergraduate and I became a successful coach primarily because I believed in my kids and I kept them very busy. At one time I would have wanted my ashes spread on the infield at the Mid-City Little League park or the Greater Midland Football League fields. I don't feel that way now, the kids I coached there have moved on and so have I.

Now days my sacred ground is more mental than physical. I can't really point to a place, it is more about a mindset. I am there now whenever I have my horses and my family together and we are training or showing the horses. I also go there now when I am able to write something that creates a response of some kind. I also go there in my work life when our team is able to accomplish something meaningful together.

The simple truth is, I find my TierraSanta everyday when I can effectively communicate with man or beast and we can create something better than what we had before we started. I don't think my friend Susan Graham, a professional Opera Singer, or my friend Jason Nix, a professional baseball player, or my horse trainer Tom Dvorak would disagree with this simplification. Each day needs a vision, passion and hard work, the gratification may not be there everyday, but it will come.