Feeling like number one

On Saturday morning, my husband got out our tennis rackets and took my hand. We walked to the school just up the hill from our home. He informed me with a smile that we were going to create a new game. Standing within a painted circle on the elementary school playground, he dubbed the name of the game "circle tennis" We took turns serving every five points that were accumulated, and laughed like crazy as we ran around the circle hitting back and forth in flip-flops, trying to aim our shots perfectly so that they would not bounce before the line in the middle, and not hit the outside ring. It was wonderful fun! My husband is quite good at tennis, and as such is able to play with even amateur players like myself because he enjoys running to and fro for my not always "on" shots, delivering the play back to me with grace and precision.
When we got to the game point of 25, I was miraculously in the lead, somehow just having a string of luck I guess...or maybe...mini games and I get along better than full sized ones. I am also pretty good at mini golf, if you can call that a sport. It may have something to do with my short stature. Who knows...in any case, I won the point, and my husband cried out with glee that I was the international world champion of circle tennis! He hugged me exuberantly and said he was delighted to be married to a world champion....and you know what....I really did feel like number one, which was a pretty nice feeling after so many months of walking with my head down, heavy with grief.

We walked home holding hands, chattering about this and that, feeling happy in our love, and dear friendship. Our sons were playing in the yard happily...everything felt just right.
Things are not always the way we want them to be, sometimes life is almost unbearable....but sometimes...it is better than you could have imagined. That is the way of life. It is what makes things balanced.