Put a Little Nick in Your Game

That’s what we tell Jordie when she’s taking her volleyball a bit too serious.
She’ll get stressed out over a missed serve or a bad set, and it really plays with her head.
“Put a little Nick in your game” Mike will tell her.
Armed with that advice, now she’ll smile and shake it off.

What it actually means is, Nick doesn’t take life too seriously.
Rarely does he get uptight or stressed.
Nick embraces the “it is what it is” theory, and accepts most things (and people) for what they are.
He is a peacemaker, with a wicked sense of humor.

Tonight, Jordie and I moseyed up to the High School to watch a varsity volleyball match which promised to be the anti-Nick.
A gymnasium filled with high energized students and parents alike, the tension rose right along with the score.

During a short break between games, my phone rang and it was a very excited Nick on the other end.
“Mom, I just had the most awesome past couple of hours, it was so great.”
“What did you do” I asked him while running quick little scenarios through my head.
(I mean I left the kid at home alone…how much fun could he have had?)

“I took my guitar outside and I strummed it while the moon came up. I also used the big tree as target practice with my Airsoft gun. It is beautiful outside tonight Mom, have you seen the moon”?

And I hadn’t.
Not yet at least.
But when Jordie and I walked out of that gym,
We were awestruck by its brilliance.
And for me, at that moment in time…
Nick hung the moon.

As we walked to the truck, I said out loud to Jordan…
“Man. I gotta put a little Nick in my game”.