2009 has been draining if not even depressing. Bad news and less-than-expected projections are announced daily. The mental and spiritual energy required to preserve hope does tax and drain even the most determined optimist looking for hidden opportunities.

Allow me to share how I found recharge and rejuvenation. Perhaps it will help you find your own.

As a boy, I fell in love with baseball and the Atlanta Braves. Living in Tampa, Florida, in the early 90s, the Braves were the closest major league baseball team and my favorite. Their 1991 worst-to-first season and World Series berth made me a Braves fan forever. That season also made the Braves’ traditional Tomahawk Chop publicly famous. I can still remember watching on TV thousands of red foam tomahawks moving in unison to a tom-tom drum beat as the Braves advanced toward the World Series. They would lose in seven games one of the best World Series in modern baseball history memory. I think what inspired me most was the next season with Sid Bream and The Slide.

Trailing two runs entering the 9th inning in the National League Championship Game against the Pirates in 1992, the Braves loaded the bases and then drove in one run on a sacrificial second out. When the team’s third-string catcher Francisco Cabrera came to the plate, there were runners on third and second. A hit into left field brought in the tying run, and Sid Bream, one of baseball’s slowest runners, limped around third on reconstructed knees attempting to score the winning run. Barry Bond’s throw from the outfield was off the line towards first, and Bream scored the winning run, sending the Braves to the World Series again.

Despite several other appearances in the World Series, they’ve only won it all once. (Sorry Indians fans.) That didn’t stop me from wanting to see my team play at Turner Field while I was recently visiting Atlanta.

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That night a cool breeze was blowing, the stadium wasn’t full, but the Braves faithful still did the tomahawk chop. The players I grew up imitating in the backyard didn’t play that night or even in that stadium. But sitting behind home plate I felt the same energizing hope and dreams I felt as a child. I realized that even the passage of time, a preoccupation with work or a disheartening recession couldn’t take away what I had felt once before. It was refreshing.

My team lost to the Marlins. But I left the stadium energized. I think it’s because I connected with something I still loved but hadn’t taken time to enjoy.

If you haven’t done so already, take time to reconnect with something you love. I would venture that it’s even worth taking time away from your business to do so. Maybe that means meeting an old friend for lunch, helping out your alumni FFA chapter or college ag club or just going to a famous landmark nearby for a family picnic. I think you will find it refreshing. PD

Walt Cooley
Editor
walt@progressivedairy.com