Be a Trophy
It’s not often that you spend time making snowballs in July. And yet here we were, standing next to a pile of snow, in July, excited to see something that we usually associate with gloves, snow suits, and possible school delays.
The day prior was in the 80’s and I participated in Ironman Lake Placid for the 2nd time in my life. It was a good day and I finished 3rd in my age group, which was pretty awesome considering all of the things I had going on at one time in my life. Third place put me in the coveted “Kona slot” group, which meant that I could choose to go to Hawaii and do that Ironman. The only thing holding me back from that was just about everything. The cost and timing just wasn’t meant to be. But with my finish I also got a cool trophy and the satisfaction that I spend hours of my winter, spring, and summer practicing for a fantastic finale. The trophy signified that I put in a ton of work and earned some hardware for my efforts.
With my trophy in hand and our family walking down the sidewalk we came across a pile of ice shavings from the skating rink. Like bees to honey our boys ran into the pile and began to check out this strange phenomenon. Snow in July. In shorts. It doesn’t get much better than that.
As it turns out snow is still cold even when it’s July and sure enough, fingers still get cold when trying to handle snow. If we only had a shovel or bucket. Or anything that could double as a tool to help the situation. We weren’t leaving the snowscaped sidewalk anytime soon but there was a need from the crumb crunchers and only one person could help.
And that’s when the Ironman logo-shaped trophy became a snow shovel. As it turns out, the head of the trophy fit pretty good in the palm of a 4-year old and the body of the trophy could move a ton of snow with each flick of the wrist. It went from a life of certain stationary status-symbol to a sidewalk scraping, snow-plowing, weapon of mass ice compaction. I kinda giggled at the multipurpose use of my trophy but I won’t lie; we had more than a few athletes stare at the scene of a 4-year old constructing a summer version of Frosty with a coveted trophy. Usually these trophies end up in a display case or mantel and not reimagined into a substitute Tonka Truck part. It didn’t take long before we had some snow sculptures once the proper tool was found.
I want to be a useful trophy. I’d like to achieve things, complete things, and feel a sense of accomplishment. But I’d like to always be in the game, looking for different ways to help, serve, and make a difference. Sometimes that means doing things in an unconventional way. Or uncomfortable way. Or even a sacrificial way, just like my shiny trophy scraping snow off an upstate New York sidewalk! Relying on what was completed and earned in the past skews our ability to meet the needs of the present. And the last time I checked we should remember the past but live in the present!
Be a trophy. But don’t fear repurposing your successes and strengths. You might get some strange looks along the way but putting yourself in a place to be used might just “snowball” and create something amazing!
