DLP
07-13-2013, 09:51 PM
I'll start by saying I have no medical evidence to back this up but it has become an observation that I have about myself in particular.
As most of you know I only got interested in and involved in bowling relatively recently, like only within the last 4 months recently. It started as a ploy to get my husband and I exercising. Just something to start to get the body moving, at all. I had just recovered from major surgery and was in no way, shape, or form ready to try and train for a 5k again. Long story that, completely different conversation. I'll just preface it by saying it was the last of a very long and drawn out series of mishaps and ailments that not only took a physical toll on me but also a mental one. It's the mental one I want to focus on.
By the time the end of March rolled around, this self proclaimed geek/nerd/etc. was more of a shutdown introvert suffering a bout of severe depression. While I was more concerned about getting my husband out the door to actually do something physical (because I want him around for a long while), he was more concerned about me, and just getting me out the door. I had turned into a hermit who spoke to a few people more comfortably through social media outlets and wanted to deal with interacting with people face to face even less. It was a chore. One that I thoroughly despised because avoidance (and using every excuse in the book to stay home) was easier than getting out of my pajamas and having to tolerate what lay outside of my front door. No way to live life, I know.
Interesting thing about this sport called "bowling", it's good for the soul as well as the mind. I'll admit, not to long ago severe frustration occurred to the point at times, I almost walked away and said the heck with it, that I can't do this. But something oddly kept drawing me back to the lanes. Something I cannot explain outside of the fact that I am most content when my shirt smells of a bowling alley. You know the smell, the one that is ingrained in the towel you wipe your ball down with. That deep whiff of Eau de' lane oil.
And then it hit me yesterday. Last night as a matter of fact. I hear laughter, I see people enjoying themselves. I see all of the colors of life unfolding before my eyes when I am at the lane. A game, a sport that generations enjoy together. Where your biggest competitor isn't in the next lane over but it is yourself. Where things aren't black and white, because everyone around who is there is bowling their own way. Their own shade of whatever hue of the rainbow you want. And I am sure, some of them bowl paisley or plaid. Because bowling, it is just THAT way. What a phenomenal thing, this bowling is.
I seriously think, it has saved me from myself. There is a level of stress that washes away when I'm at the lanes. A mindset that has focus, that has purpose. When I go to the lanes, I leave my troubles at the door because when it comes down to it, it's just between the pins and I.
A line from DV8's Manifesto comes to mind: Nothing is as satisfying as hurling dangerously heavy spheres at stationary objects—and watching X’s fill the frames.
As most of you know I only got interested in and involved in bowling relatively recently, like only within the last 4 months recently. It started as a ploy to get my husband and I exercising. Just something to start to get the body moving, at all. I had just recovered from major surgery and was in no way, shape, or form ready to try and train for a 5k again. Long story that, completely different conversation. I'll just preface it by saying it was the last of a very long and drawn out series of mishaps and ailments that not only took a physical toll on me but also a mental one. It's the mental one I want to focus on.
By the time the end of March rolled around, this self proclaimed geek/nerd/etc. was more of a shutdown introvert suffering a bout of severe depression. While I was more concerned about getting my husband out the door to actually do something physical (because I want him around for a long while), he was more concerned about me, and just getting me out the door. I had turned into a hermit who spoke to a few people more comfortably through social media outlets and wanted to deal with interacting with people face to face even less. It was a chore. One that I thoroughly despised because avoidance (and using every excuse in the book to stay home) was easier than getting out of my pajamas and having to tolerate what lay outside of my front door. No way to live life, I know.
Interesting thing about this sport called "bowling", it's good for the soul as well as the mind. I'll admit, not to long ago severe frustration occurred to the point at times, I almost walked away and said the heck with it, that I can't do this. But something oddly kept drawing me back to the lanes. Something I cannot explain outside of the fact that I am most content when my shirt smells of a bowling alley. You know the smell, the one that is ingrained in the towel you wipe your ball down with. That deep whiff of Eau de' lane oil.
And then it hit me yesterday. Last night as a matter of fact. I hear laughter, I see people enjoying themselves. I see all of the colors of life unfolding before my eyes when I am at the lane. A game, a sport that generations enjoy together. Where your biggest competitor isn't in the next lane over but it is yourself. Where things aren't black and white, because everyone around who is there is bowling their own way. Their own shade of whatever hue of the rainbow you want. And I am sure, some of them bowl paisley or plaid. Because bowling, it is just THAT way. What a phenomenal thing, this bowling is.
I seriously think, it has saved me from myself. There is a level of stress that washes away when I'm at the lanes. A mindset that has focus, that has purpose. When I go to the lanes, I leave my troubles at the door because when it comes down to it, it's just between the pins and I.
A line from DV8's Manifesto comes to mind: Nothing is as satisfying as hurling dangerously heavy spheres at stationary objects—and watching X’s fill the frames.