Disappointment

Well, disappointment. Houston lost to Duke in the Sweet 16 last night. A key player went down early, and in a season marked by players going down to injury, it was one injury too many. The team played on but came up short. They’ll survive. I’ll survive. The sun appears to have come up this morning. And I guess now the team gets to learn the lesson of how to move on, how to respond.

Because if there’s a constant in life. It’s disappointment. We lose a game. We lose in love. We lose a friend. We lose a brother. We lose a wife. Plants die. Houses come crumbling down. A job slips away. Someone tells us no. Phone calls go unreturned. Plans go unmade. But through it all, somehow, there’s almost always a way out. A glimmer of hope that tomorrow might be better.

And gradually you learn to live with the loss and head out to try and find some wins. Some things that give you pleasure, some joy. It’s not always easy and the best bet sometimes is to simply sit down and count your blessings, because if disappointment is a constant so are those blessings. Granted, sometimes you have to look hard, but they’re almost always there, the sweet feel of a breeze on your cheek, sun on your skin, the feel of a book in your hands, a favorite song. And as you get older, sometimes just being alive and able to think about tomorrow is win enough.