Tennis and other woes
On the second night of the retreat I began to feel terribly sick. I wasn’t able to sleep, and not wanting to be tired the next day (couldn’t really afford to, having to play in the band and all) I began to pray to the Lord for healing. (As well as asking Him for forgiveness for anything and everything I could think of that I might have done that needed forgiveness, just in case).
It wasn’t long before I was asleep, and didn’t budge the rest of the night (thank God). My alarm went off at 6:30 anyway. Still quite tired, I remembered I had scheduled an early tennis game with Ralph, a good friend of mine and the bass player in our band. Even though I was tired, I couldn’t just leave him out there waiting so I crawled out of bed, and with my racket in hand headed down the hill. It is a mountainside hotel with the chalets a bit off from the main building complex. I met up with him on my way to the courts and we chatted a little. Me just sort of nodding along, kind of hoping he would say he was too tired to play or something. Did I mention that it was freezing cold? That wasn’t helping.
He didn’t say much either, just sort of stared at me, and all the while I was wishing he’d give up on the game. Finally I figured it was either play and get our blood pumping or go numb, so I mumbled “Let’s do it?”
So. Still half asleep, we began chasing the ball around. This went on for about 45 minutes but it seemed more like three hours to me. Finally someone else showed up to play and I readily handed my racket over before racing back to my chalet. Where I proceeded to thaw off with a half-hour hot shower before crawling back into my bed. I woke to the sound of the band playing down in the hall… without me! To my dismay they were sounding really good, so I scrambled down there to rightfully claim my post as band drummer before someone realized they didn’t need me anymore. Thankfully I felt better for the rest of the day and was even able to take my kids around to some of the activities.
Later, while having dinner with the other band members, Ralph confided that he’d risen for our early game feeling terribly tired and secretly wishing that I’d call off our tennis game—like I’d been waiting for him to do. Ha!
