Today Pat and I drove up to Pulaski, WI to watch our grandson play his last football game of the fall. (He is the one in the middle of the picture with the football.) His eight grade Middle school team won keeping them undefeated for the season. I had mixed feelings watching him play. On one hand the game was exciting and close but on the other hand I feared he would get hurt.
Although he is a talented quarterback once and awhile players come through the line unblocked and flatten him. A few weeks ago, in the only other game I saw this year, he was hit in the head quite hard on the second last play of the game. Fortunately and hopefully he did no sustain any head injury.

On the way to Pulaski in the car Pat and I were doing some faith sharing about our fears. We had this same question, what do we fear, in our Tuesday Faith Sharing group a month or two ago. It is an interesting question for reflection and, being honest, brings out some deep rooted fears we all have. Facing fears is important for us otherwise they can control us.

On the way up North we noticed the beautiful fall colors on the trees. The change in the temperature triggers the tree so they shed their leaves to prepare for greater exposure to sun in the winter. If the leaves do not die and fall, the tree might die.

What do Fall, Fear, Football, Fading leaves have to do with each other besides all starting with F? My experiences today was a reminder to me that unless I face my fears, allow them to fall like leaves and face the challenges of the dying of the Fall there will be no less of meaning for me.

I try to learn about nonviolence and apply it to my life as a way of life, to face the violence and killing that surrounds us. However, as Gandhi reminds us “Just as one must learn the art of killing in the training for violence, so one must learn the art of dying in the training for non-violence.”

So my grandson’s last football game this fall was played. But the art of dying, letting our leaves fall, we must always continue to learn in our training to experience the love and peace of a non-violence.

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