The Spirit in Us All

I think somewhere, deep inside everyone, is a little spark. It is a little spark that lights up all on its own. The spark is inconsistent. It is unpredictable. But what it brings to life is wonderful, amazing and beautiful.

That little spark lit up in my daughter Ashlie today at the school athletics carnival. She's no runner, but she went in every race. She had also tried out for the other events at school and made it into the high jump finals for junior girls. I recalled the swimming miracle, where she turned from non-swimmer to squad training in less than 6 months. But I never expected something like that to happen again!

High jump is such an obscure event, for school athletics. I remember my school carnivals - one jump, I'm out, oh well, sit down. Today, Ashlie kept clearing the bar. The height was put up, she cleared it. Other girls had their three attempts, Ashlie cleared it. She had to repeat two heights but made them on each 2nd attempt. I remember one of the mums saying it didn't matter, as Ashlie would do no worse than fourth - they started with nine or ten girls.

Then suddenly it was down to Ashlie and April. I was stunned! The height was around the 90 or so centimetre mark I think, and Ashlie used her three attempts but it was too much. April added another height change but finished at that.

Oh how we marvel over our surprise little champion. She gets so much enjoyment from just participating, and that's all I ask of her, but her delighted little face, such pure joy in her eyes, it is moments like that that I live to see!

Georgia on the other hand doesn't have the same simplistic joy with competing. She's hard to define. Bad loser (very sensitive) yet she often behaves as though she is competitive.
Watching her today in her races just made me smile. Rather than racing to win, she spent the whole race looking over at her friend, who looked back at her, and they giggled, tying for last. If you ask them, they would tell you they ran their hardest but smile guiltily if you mention the talking along the way. Georgia only cried twice today. Once when someone was mean to her. And once because she didn't think she should talk to a girl who was in a different house team.
Most importantly though is that Georgia did have fun and she doesn't mention either of those emotional outbursts when talking about her day. I can't wait to see what she does next year when competition becomes a little more serious for her age group!