Friday, February 5, 2021

Patience Pole- Steer Nation Message 2-5-21

GOOD MORNING AND HAPPY FRIDAY!

COVID-19 Information- Please visit this site for the GISD COVID-19 procedures, protocols, and lab-confirmed cases.

Lady Blues Basketball- The Lady Blues clinched the District Championship this past Tuesday with their 59-36 victory over Vernon. CONGRATULATIONS! The Lady Blues will finish the regular season this evening at GHS versus Mineral Wells. The evening will include Senior Night activities and a presentation of the District Champion “Gold Ball.” The Lady Blues will play a warmup game vs Archer City at GHS on Monday at 7:00 pm. The first playoff game will be on Thursday, February 11 vs Brownwood or Lampasas. If versus Brownwood, the game will be played at 6:30 pm in Clyde. If versus Lampasas, time and location TBD.


Graham Steer Basketball- Congrats on the Tuesday evening 65-41 victory over Vernon. The Steers will be at GHS this evening vs Mineral Wells. The game will begin at approximately 7:30 pm. GO STEERS!


Lady Blues Soccer- The Lady Blues will be at home this evening vs Springtown. The JV game begins at 5:30 pm with the varsity contest to follow. GO LADY BLUES!


Graham Steer Soccer- The Steer soccer team will be at Lake Worth this evening. GO STEERS!


Lady Blues Softball- The Lady Blues will host a scrimmage vs Peaster and Rider beginning at 10 am on Saturday.


Graham Steer Baseball- The Steers will host a scrimmage vs Godley beginning at 11:00 am on Saturday.



Patience Post...  

 

A friend told me of a vacation he and his wife took to the Texas Gulf Coast several years ago. They took one day of the trip to tour the legendary King Ranch. At one point of the tour, the bus stopped at a corral that was empty, except for one solitary horse tied to a post in the shade of a tree. The guide explained that when a cowboy goes to a large pasture to gather cattle, he always takes two mounts – one for the morning and another for the afternoon. Because the horses often have to wait for their rider, part of their training is to be left alone, tethered to a post for several hours each day until they learn patience. The post to which the pony was tied is called “the patience post”. Wow, on that historic ranch, my friend observed that the ability to wait patiently is valued in a horse as much as its speed and cutting skill.

Patience, beginning the second year of this COVID pandemic, is something that is beginning to be in short supply. I know of so many that are beginning to tire of the isolation from friends and family. As someone told me recently, “I’m about Zoomed out.” We long to see others face-to-face!

I recently read of a Tennessee mother who had to rush her daughter to an emergency room after a scary fall and some minor surgery. After reassuring everyone that the child was going to be fine, she said, the experience “put us in the path of so many wonderful East Tennesseans. Nurses and technicians and doctors, the other parents waiting in the ER, the parking attendant, the security guard. I’m sure many of them didn’t vote as I did in the last election, but they responded to our trauma with their full humanity.”

She said that through our time of pandemic forced isolation she had forgotten what it feels like to really see people. She said, “I’ve been living in a castle of isolation these many months, and it has rotted and blotted my insides.” Based on her hospital experience with her daughter, the mother asks, “Why is our righteous indignation and disgust so much easier to ignite than our compassion.”

I don’t know about you, but my patience is beginning to wear thin. I'm tired of seeing people that want the vaccine not be able to receive it, I’m tired of everyone not being able to see family like they used to do, I’m tired of endless meetings by Zoom and Google Meets. I’ve overheard many people say, “I can’t wait until we get back to normal.” Regretfully, no one can tell us when that will be. Certainly, it won’t be this month, next month, or probably not even the next month. “Normal” as we knew it, may never return.

When this scourge passes, life may never be exactly as it was, but it will be much better than it is now. We will be better at our craft with a new set of skills in our tool bag. Because of the many challenges you have faced this past year, you may already be trained to be patient like the horses at the King Ranch. I, on the other hand, probably need more time tethered to the “patience post”!

 

CORNY JOKE OF THE DAY

How does the moon cut its hair? (Scroll down for the answer.)








Eclipse it (he clips it)!


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