Teammates

For six years until "retiring" at age 60, I was a runner.  During those years I ran in seven long-distance relays on teams of twelve, in addition to many non-team races.  Those were some of the most exciting and transforming years of my life.  I had never before really participated in sports nor experienced being on a team.  Until then, I didn't even like athletics.  But that all changed the day I began to run. 

Recently, I was chatting with a young man who had been one of my teammates in my first relay, six years ago.  We both shared how much we loved the experience and in spite of the vast difference between our ages, I will always feel a bond with him and everyone else with whom I had ever been teamed together.  

In a relay, as runners would start one of their "legs" -- the term for the sections of the race each person runs -- their teammates would drive by and honk and cheer them on, as they'd head to the next "exchange" where their next runner would wait to take the "baton".  When the first runner dragged in gasping and sweating, there'd be more clapping and cheers, both for him/her and for the new runner starting out.  I remember feeling such a love for them all.  We were in this together, each doing our part. 

Some of the legs included long grueling hills, and we'd stop the van at the top to cheer our runner up and over. 

We'd sometimes write messages in chalk on the road.  "GO ______, YOU ARE AWESOME!!"  We'd be there to offer water if needed, or mist from a spray bottle to cool them off. 

Many times, teams helped other teams.  I remember waiting for one of our runners to come in from a long, hot leg and a van carrying another team pulled up and said they'd given her water a few miles back and she was doing well.  I have been offered water and encouragement by other teams, as I struggled up hills.  One time a brightly-costumed team of strangers saluted me with an arch as I finished my leg.  

   

I may not always remember the names of all my former teammates, but the bond will live on.  We experienced something hard and wonderful together and forevermore, whenever our future paths may cross, we may hug, high-five, or just smile and laugh while we reminisce.  Several times I've seen strangers out running wearing the T-shirt from a relay in which I had also run, and I wanted to wave and let them know we had been there together!

Mortality is a tiny snapshot of our eternal existence.  We lived long before we came to this earth and we will live long into eternity after we leave it.  The number of souls who came here before us, and the souls who will occupy this planet after us, is countless.  But the number who were here, when you and I were here, is finite.  And that group, is our team.  

Eons from now, I imagine many encounters with others who lived on earth during the different eras of history ... some during the days of Moses, some during the Renaissance, some after my lifetime.  What stories we'll share!  And when I meet up with someone who was here when I was here ..... who lived through the same world events that I did ..... there will be a commonality .... a bond.  Maybe we will hug or high-five, laugh or cry over our shared memories.  Because we were here together, breathing the same air, working through our mortality in tandem, sharing the earth for a few overlapping years.  Our struggles, pain, and fears coincided with our victories and triumphs in the same generation.  

Of all the billions of souls placed here briefly by our Heavenly Father -- those who lived their mortality when I lived my mortality, are part of my team.....  

So we'll pull each other up the hills and give each other water in the heat .... and cheer each other across the finish line .... bonded forever as teammates.