The Mommies' Diaries…Parenting, One Blog at a Time.

You know the sound.  You know you’ve sighed.  But do you know why a sigh makes the sound that it does?  Well, just this last Sunday, I discovered a new sigh.

Over the past week, I noticed I was sighing quite a bit.  Sighs have lots of different sounds and each sound can mean something different.

There’s the ‘I’m tired’ sigh.  The ‘Oh brother’ sigh.  The ‘I’m frustrated’ sigh.  And how about the ‘I give up’ sigh?  Yes, and even the ‘I’m perfectly content’ sigh.

Well, this last week, I was watching the field hockey team my youngest daughter is a part of play a division game.  During the game, there was quite a bit of frustration and confusion on the field between the girls as they ran around trying to get the ball into the goal.

While this was going on, some of the more experienced girls were playing harder, trying to make up for bad calls by the refs and for some poor play due to miscommunication and the lack of talking going on between the team members on the field.

Some were chasing after the ball with great intensity, not giving up when the ball was taken from them.  Some were stealing the ball and focusing on getting their sticks low to stop the ball from moving down the field.  And some, like my daughter, were calling out instructions and giving guidance to the younger players during the game.

When the game was over, our team ultimately lost 2-1.  I told my daughter that she played great and I liked the way she was herding the other teammates up and down the field making sure they were getting into their positions and using what they had been taught.  She blew it off, like she always does, taking her good performance for granted.

The next day, after their practice was over, my daughter texted me that she had received two stickers to put on her field hockey stick.  They were awards – one for offense and one for heart.  I didn’t want to tell her ‘I told you so’…

But, I did!

My heart swelled.  And I sighed.  I noticed it was a different sigh.  My youngest daughter was growing up, was a leader, and others had taken notice that she had a lot of heart.  My sigh was one of a wish coming true.  If there’s one wish we all have for each other, it’s that we want the other to have a lot of heart.  Because with a lot of heart, one has compassion, determination, strong will, and integrity.

And that’s all we really want for each other, isn’t it?

Sigh.