Calling back to those coming behind <3
The start of the school year is a mixed bag of excitement and anxiety for children and adults. New teachers, class rosters, team tryouts and auditions all add up to a roller coaster of emotions.
For children, everything is a brand new encounter. For parents, we have the bonus of tagging on our own experiences to what our little ones are going through. We have our feelings and their feelings and sometimes it’s just a lot.
I remember when our Rachel was beginning junior high. One of the big draws was to be part of the show choir. This involved tryouts for dancing and singing over the course of several days. Eventually the list would be posted and dutifully scanned by hopeful students at the end of the day on a Friday.
Rachel rode the bus and so it was a long wait as we watched her come up the driveway. She had been walking with friends part of the way, but as she rounded into our view, the tears started.
She had made it, but as an alternate. All of her friends had made the real deal team. She would attend practices and do all the work and then fill in if anyone was missing for a performance. Not exactly what she had hoped for.
I hurt for her and did my best to cheer her up, but it was a long weekend.
The next week I ran into a mom who was, at best, an acquaintance. We had mutual friends, but her youngest was a year ahead of Rachel. She was a seasoned mom, a bit of a socialite in our community and always looked chic and pulled together while I was usually running in helter-skelter in torn jeans and a black top because black was my friend and went with everything.
Wherever I ran into her that day; she greeted me with her usual pretty smile and then said she had heard Rachel had tried out for show choir and she was looking forward to being with us in the coming year for this activity.
I stammered that Rachel had not actually made the team, she was an alternate. Immediately she waved her hand and said that would not last. She said she was sure before very long Rachel would be officially added to the roster.
She was right.
After a few weeks of rehearsals, for whatever reason, the alternate status was upgraded and Rachel enjoyed the next two years singing and dancing with her friends. It was a season, and when she reached high school the charm had worn off for our girl. She moved on to other interests and friends.
But what lingered for me was the way this mom took the time to encourage me. Her ability to do so came from her son and their family having weathered his own disappointment the year before. Unlike her older daughter, a few years before him, the son was first assigned as an alternate and had to wait to be called up to the majors. She knew what it felt like and she knew the possibilities and she spoke hope to me.
She didn’t dwell on the negative but used it to point someone coming along behind her to a better future. Ever after that I have held a soft place in my heart for her. Kindness is something we all have the capacity to extend and it is pure gold in this crazy world.
In the book Streams in the Desert, there is a poem about calling back. It is the cry of one making a long climb to those who have made it farther up the trail. Here is the opening verse.
“If you have gone a little way ahead of me, call back –
’twill cheer my heart, and help my feet along the stony track;
And, if perchance, faith’s light is dim, because the oil is low,
Your call will guide my lagging course as wearily I go.”
Mrs. Charels Cowman
The poem goes on to speak of those hard times when our faith needs encouragement. I learned a lot from this mom about using our family’s harder climbs to call back to those coming behind us. We all have someone coming along behind us. Let’s remember to train our ears to hear their cries for us to call back with words of encouragement.
Here is the rest of the poem
https://herestoresmysoul.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Call-Back-Poem-by-Mrs.-Charles-Cowman.pdf