Miss Leslie

Leaving the Game

I went to my second Astros game this season last night.  I’ve watched baseball my whole life. My dad is an avid sports fan (and I mean all sports) and my very first job was working the concession stand at my brother’s little league game. I know baseball.

For some reason, the concept of the relief pitcher struck me last night.  I love “A League of Their Own” and the “There’s no crying in baseball” concept.  As a woman, I’m pretty sure, I couldn’t be a pitcher. They would pull me off the field in the 7^th inning (or sooner if the other team was scoring off of me) and I would sit in the dugout wondering what I did wrong, analyzing every aspect of what I did, kicking myself for all of my mistakes. . . . a man just sits in the dugout. Because it’s time. It’s time to leave the game.

In our crazy, rat raced society, we push ourselves to our limits and we push everyone around us. We think we can just work harder, push more and we will get what we want. We forget that there are times when we just need to give up and leave the game.  And, more importantly, we need to remember that leaving the game doesn’t mean you’re doing anything wrong or that you are less of a person. Sometimes it’s just time to leave.

The pitcher’s arm gets tired. He’s no longer throwing strikes. It’s just time to go. Let someone else come in and take over – someone with a fresh arm and high energy.

Letting go isn’t easy. There’s a reason we have arms – we want to hold onto things. We want to stay. Our human spirit wants to continue to try to win and overcome. But sometimes it is time. It is time to leave. It is time to go.

I had a writer tell me that leaving is a huge theme in my songs, and it certainly is. For a lot of reasons.

Today, let go. Let go of hurt. Let go of pain. Let go of a thing. Let go of a person. Let go of a dream. Let go of a goal. The pitcher can’t stay on the mound for forever. Whether the coach pulls him out or the game has ended, he has to leave. It just IS. There is no good or bad. It just IS.

Why? You cannot move on without letting go. The pitcher walks to the dugout. He rests. He cheers on his teammates. He finds himself in a different place. Not bad, not good just different.

It’s time. It’s time to leave.

Miss Leslie Nominated for Best Country Act in Houston

Voting ends July 31, 2014:

http://musicawardspoll.houstonpress.com/

Thank you, Houston!

Value

I blogged a couple of years ago about one of those reality shows about junk. “One man’s junk is another man’s treasure”, right? My friend Jack Edwards is a collector. He loves antique cars and music. I love going to his place and just looking around. And everything has a story.

I had another friend that used to talk to people at bars about musicians.  I would always giggle at the looks on people’s faces when he would talk to them about some guitar or steel player like they were this big deal and the person he was talking to didn’t even recognize the name of the musician they played for.  Don’t get me wrong – Jake Hooker and Gary Carpenter are amazing musicians. But John Doe at the local bar has no idea who the heck they are. But to my friend – they were the equivalent of George Strait and the Ace in the Hole Band.

Value. Today I am thinking about value. Value is what YOU assign to a person, place or thing. It doesn’t matter what someone else assigns to it or what they think about it.

Did you ever talk to someone about buying something and they had a firm number that they would not back down from?  For some reason they assigned a value that could not be changed in their mind. Was that the item’s actual worth? Probably not – but they personally imprinted a number to that thing.

Value seems to me to be somehow tied to the heart and feelings. You love some piece of jewelry or shirt or song because it reminds you of some place and time or someone that you cared about. Or even negatively, something becomes of little value to you because it reminds you of someone or something that you hate.

Today I am thinking about value and assigning myself a number higher than I ever have in the past. For a lot of reasons.