It’s fabulous fall!  Not too hot.  Not too cold.  Perfect Goldilocks weather.  Youth Soccer started last week, and I found myself down at the park on a golden afternoon trying to find the correct soccer field along with everyone else in town.  After walking through the middle of a few wrong fields, I finally found Soccer Field 3 and planted my camp chair in the shade and settled in.  Meanwhile, Elle found Coach Beck, got her soccer shirt, and started warming up. 

This is life!  We watched the kids race up and down Field 3, which became our world for the next hour.  I love it when everyone is involved and Darwin’s Survival of the Fittest hasn’t kicked in yet.  Youth Soccer is for everyone, and everyone survives.  You’ve got your go-getters, your happy hanger-outers, those who would rather chit-chat, some timid hang-backers, some with athletic promise but no experience and some with experience but not much athleticism.  It’s a conglomerate of joy that happens in the fall every year in small-town America.  No one is playing Club Soccer yet and everyone will be in on the soccer conversation at school on Monday.  It’s an opportunity that allows kids to begin to decide what they want to pursue.

Opportunities like soccer are often taken for granted along with those who take the time to organize, set-up and coach.  So, thanks to Melissa Firth, her helpers and her crew of coaches who help us all enjoy a perfect world on a golden afternoon during a fabulous fall in small-town America.  If you haven’t been, drop by the park on Thursday evenings or Saturday mornings and visit with your friends while watching the kids take the field. Bring a chair! It is a Good Life.