CINDY TRANE CHRISTESON -- The Moral of the Story

“God formed you with tender love, and just like He loves and cares for

you, so He wants you to have the same love and care for one another.”

-- Joseph Girzone

I was thrilled to hear that my nephew John was going to be in a track

meet that I could watch last week. I love my nephew, and I love track

meets. I’ve been going through track meet withdrawals lately, so the

timing was perfect.

The meet was at Corona del Mar High School, our daughters’ alma mater.

For six years my car practically drove itself there many times a week for

meetings or events, but my favorites were cross-country and track meets.

I never missed one, unless I was out of town.

I enjoyed the whole track meet experience. I loved the kids, the

coaches and the teachers who helped. It felt like extended family, and we

all cheered for one another’s children. It’s great to go through high

school years with the support, encouragement and prayers of other

families. It was also wonderful to have coaches and teachers who went the

extra mile to inspire their students to develop their character as well

as academic and athletic abilities.

It meant a lot to our girls when friends and family came to cheer for

them. Their high school pastors often came to meets as well, which also

spoke volumes. All that kind of support shows children how valuable they

are to so many people, as well as to God.

So it felt great to be back there, cheering and yelling once again. It

was fun to watch John because he puts his all into everything he does. In

between his events, I made the rounds, hugging and visiting the coaches

and teachers and the students I still recognized.

“You just can’t stay away can you?” one of the teachers said with a

big smile.

I laughed and said, “No, I guess I can’t.”

“It’s great, and tell those girls of yours to come see me when they

get home,” he said.

Then I left to see what John’s next event was. I found my family in

the center of the infield. I told them about my first experiences with

track meets, that it took a while to learn the order of events as well as

protocol for parents.

At our daughters’ school, I often went to the infield to talk or take

pictures. Once, though, we were at a different school and I assumed it

was fine to do the same thing. Soon I heard a loud speaker announcement

that said, “Athletes and coaches only in the infield. Everybody else

please return to the bleachers. I repeat, everybody else off. This means

mothers, especially mothers from Newport Beach with cameras.”

Several of us tiptoed off very quickly and quietly. One of those

mothers told me she’d be out of town for next week’s race.

“I’m counting on you to cheer my daughter on, when and where I can’t,”

she said. “I’ll do the same for you.”

I thought about that as I ran over to cheer on John’s last race. We

all need to be cheering for one another, no matter what our age and

stage.

And you can quote me on that.

* CINDY TRANE CHRISTESON is a Newport Beach resident who speaks

frequently to parenting groups. She may be reached via e-mail at o7

[email protected] or through the mail at P.O. Box 6140-No. 505,

Newport Beach, CA 92658.