The Woodberry Harrier 2018: Volume 3

This Little One

As most of you know, the bad news has kept coming since the last posting: Riley’s “sore calf” turned

out to be a level-4 stress fracture, Henry’s hip vociferously disagreed with his plan to race against FUMA, and Neil still can’t even jog on his ankle. I had to meet the EHS coach before our annual dual last week to tell him we didn’t have enough runners to score against them. That was an embarrassing first.

I often tell the boys that the challenge we get is the challenge we get–and very rarely the one we have imagined or wanted. And, I usually add, the challenge we get is often the very one we most need, like it or not. I’ve preached that a long time, but I must here confess that this philosophy has been looking pretty glib and smelling of saccharine here in the last days of a season that began with so much hope.

When I was feeling unusually sorry for us one day last week and needed a time-out, I turned on a podcast and heard the poet David Whyte point out that vulnerability comes from the same root as wound—that it’s where we are opened up to life, to experiences, to learning what we need to learn, to others. Was it a mere coincidence that I chose this particular podcast on that particular day?

The next afternoon I felt an unexpected gratitude and excitement when Thomas was able to run the entire work out (and do it well) and Lawrence said his foot felt fine for the first time in a while and Henry declared he’d had “the best workout in a year.” Might these little moments have gone unremarked had I been obsessing over fine-tuning our point strategy to upset St. Chris? I fear so.

I am reminded of an interview I heard years ago with the British journalist Malcolm Muggeridge about his visit to see Mother Teresa. She was holding a baby and smiling, and he asked her how she could smile in the face of so much pain and suffering.  She laughed and said, “This little one just took milk.”

Gratitude, humility, joy in doing what little we can as well as we can manage–yes, these are lessons we often miss without the challenges we don’t want.

Here are the results of the recent dual meets:

WFS vs. EHS
Woodberry Forest, VA
19 October 2018
EHS - 24 WFS - 37
	Place out of 31	Time
Clark	1st	17:43	Course PR
Garza	3rd	18:33	Course PR
Boney	13th	22:10
Daniels	19th	23:24

WFS vs. FUMA
Woodberry Forest, VA
24 October 2018
EHS - 28 WFS - 31
	Place out of 30	Time
Watt	1st	17:01	Lifetime PR
Clark	2nd	17:16
Garza	5th	18:48
Mills	12th	20:35
Boney	17th	21:43