Yesterday, I found a folded up note from my nine year old, Cody.
On the outside of the note were the words…
To the Universe…
The night before he wrote this note, we were up late constructing his science project of the solar system. The Universe….
What prompted his letter to the Universe? Some of the same feelings we all come across… fear… finding the strength to move through and past it. Giving ourselves permission to let our prayers and wishes be heard! By asking…!
This current baseball season is Cody’s first year in the division of kid-pitched baseball, last year he was in the coach-pitched division. He is a pitcher, and a very good, confident one. However, when it comes to batting, he has potential, strength and power to hit the ball far; but that hasn’t been his story yet…. Can you relate? I can. In certain areas of our lives, we might not have gained that ‘something’ to showcase what we are truly capable of doing.
You see, fear made its way inside of Cody… and he has struggled to gain his power back. Fear got the best of him, every time he would go up to bat. He was afraid of getting hit from a kid pitcher and the fear was becoming a habit. When the season first began, he was backing out of the batter’s box before he would even give himself a chance. There were so many game nights of tears and frustration. Even the nights that he pitched a great game, he focused on his disappointing fears that controlled him when he batted. The coaches and all watching him would be yelling, “Don’t back out of the batter’s box!” Of course, he told us, “I tell myself the same thing, and I still do it!”
Cody Pitching
Everyone has been working with him because of his potential to be a power hitter. Recently, he worked up his courage and changed his fear-based behavior to not back out of the batter’s box, but he was striking out by just standing there watching the ball go by.
We all have been rooting for him to get past his fear and muster the power for his potential with batting. It didn’t help during the season, when a player on a team they were playing against was taken away from the game in an ambulance because his head was split open from being hit during warm up by a thrown ball. We talked about his fears and the fact that they are not groundless and there is a respect for the ball but he can’t let that paralyze him.
The deal is that no one could conquer these fears for him but him. He had to get through this on his own.
Or…
Did he not have to feel so alone and on his own?
I opened the letter he wrote to the Universe… and he wrote about his upcoming game against the first place team and how he was going to get a big hit. He signed the letter…. Sincerely, Cody Nathaniel Czajka. He made a real prayer request to the Universe and the formality of his signature signalled how it was all of him, every ounce of him making this request. He did this letter completely on his own, it was fully from him.
What is so simple and yet so magical was that the night before, when we were constructing the solar system…. the Universe. Something must have transferred into the heart and soul of him about the Universe….
The Benevolent Powers that Be — holding this grand Universe together — meant there is something beyond his mere self that he can call upon to help him get through this tough time to find victory and triumph.
Today was the game he wrote the letter about… and the first two times Cody went to bat, he struck out. It was the last inning, his team was down by three runs. Cody went to bat with two outs and two runners on base. He got two strikes called on him.
Then the miraculous happened…
He smacked that ball…far into the outfield…and landed a triple. When he arrived to third base. You could see him wiping the tears from eyes. The whole team went crazy not just for the hit and runs but for HIM!
The beautiful part of the story… is that somewhere in him now… not only does he know he conquered his fear and hit the ball… he knows he is not alone with his fears… there is a power… a magnanimous Divine Universal Presence always available to give us the stream of life to carry us through and on the other side of our prayers and help us capture our wishes…
Being willing to ask… starts the ball rolling!