None But Eagles

Ultimate frisbee playoffs have begun. We had to wait out a thunderstorm before we could start the game, but in spite of the rain and the humidity (the fields were literally steaming) and the lack of my standard pre-game energy bar, I played a solid game and felt buoyantly confident and had more fun than usual. I haven’t felt good about my game for a couple of weeks now, but today in addition to scoring my usual little handful of goals, I assisted three goals with smooth, fast flicks directly to players cutting into exactly the right spot. I am not always a reliable thrower during the game because my brain and my body do not always work together as well as they should, but that moment where you know you made the right decision in your brain and your body acts in exactly the way you meant it to and the elements consent to cooperate with both is amazing.

The sun emerged from the clouds shortly before it set. Three deer had ventured out of the forest to watch the game from afar, and when the sun came out they basked in it, rooting us on, pushing us to finish the game before dark. Scott joked after one of my assists that even the deer were applauding, couldn’t I hear them? They calmly discussed the successes and failures of our various strategies and placed bets on the outcome. They left after we won the game and the mosquitoes launched their attack.