Dan's Livestream - Bonus Saturday - Conscious Pickleball And Spirituality

All right, well, happy Thanksgiving to everybody in the Cadresphere. And yeah, this is a bonus Saturday for me because I do four Saturdays, and each Saturday is a different theme. But when there's a fifth Saturday, I can kind of go off script, go a little bit of freewheeling off road, whatever you want to call it. And I thought, well, you know, I'm in Arizona with my family, visiting family, and, hey, Happy Thanksgiving, everybody. And so the title of this little talk is Conscious pickleball and spirituality and the practice of Spirituality.

It could probably be anything, but I play a lot of pickleball, like, you know, other 290 million Americans, and I'm pretty good. And I was thinking about it. I was thinking, like, well, you know, I talk a lot about spirituality and talk a lot about these practices, and pickleball is, like, such a great place to practice. 1. The general idea of pickleball is that it's a community. And the general idea is that people play with anybody. I mean, really. But then there's also, like, levels. And so I was thinking about, like, well, how.

How do I do? Right? Because, you know, a big thing for me, anybody can do a live stream and say whatever they want about who they are and how they live. Just like in recovery meetings, anybody can say whatever they want about who they are. But it's really like the people around us and our families that are really going to validate whether what we say in meetings has any real meaning to it. And so I was like, all right, so I know I'm a competitive person, and there are lots of ways that you can show up in any sport or in life, right?

But sports, especially competitive sports, are an invitation to our darker side or to a more generous side. And what I realized is, like, when I first started playing, people were really generous. Now I'm. I was. I'm kind of a natural at it because I played tennis, and so, you know, that's part of it, right? But people were just really generous in welcoming me, in playing with me, in being patient with me. And so the question is, like, am I the same way? And so as I was, like, thinking about kind of how I practice some of these principles in pickleball, I was thinking about my attitude toward people.

And the other day, I was playing with a guy, and in my mind at first, I was like, this guy shouldn't be playing with us. This guy's not that good. This guy doesn't belong out here. I was like, oh, man, that is not like, I was only thinking that. And he was on my team, right? It was two against two and he was on my team and he couldn't get balls. He was an older guy. Because I'm, you know, I met my in laws, right, and it's a retirement community, but it's huge. And in fact, it's one of the places where pickleball first came to after it got started in Washington State.

And I just thought, like, where's the generosity? Where's the willingness to just play a game? Where's the willingness to have fun? And I think, you know, like, for me that's, that's where it all comes down to, right? I mean, like, does it really matter how good the guy is? Like, I'm not going to get any awards, I'm not going to get any trophies and we're just having fun and what does it mean to him to be there? So I quickly changed my attitude and I was like, hey man, I'll get whatever balls you want me to get and let's just have fun.

And it turned the whole thing around and, and then suddenly my partner was my partner instead of somebody I got stuck with. And the game was the game and we lost and it was fine, it was okay. And it's like everything I do is an opportunity to practice. Consciousness as a practice is opportunity to practice. What I, you know, what I talk about with this emotional sobriety, this idea of like, who cares about pickleball in the, at the end of the day, who cares about pickleball enough that you're going to alienate somebody or not be generous?

Now the exact opposite can be the case where I get on a court and I'm out of my depths and maybe people are being generous with me or maybe I shouldn't exactly be there. Or maybe like today I got pulled into kind of just like a little competition and it was some higher level players and it was a lot of fun, but we still just had fun, was very competitive, we had a lot of points, but there was no animosity, there was no tension, there was a lot of generosity and there was a lot of, you know, looking at people and just saying, hey, you know, nice shot, great shot, or offering little tips or that sort of thing.

And I think, you know, for me, that's what I want. Whether it's pickleball, whether it's Thanksgiving dinner, whether it's driving home from Arizona on our way to la, it's just kind of like, how can I show up so that these principles I talk about, that I practice them and the challenge Is as soon as I get into a certain space, I sometimes think that those principles don't apply or I don't need to focus on them. And that, to me, is the sign that I need to focus on them the most. And so I just encourage everybody, whether you're going to be driving home or flying home today, tomorrow, or you've got family members leaving, it's kind of like, you know, how can I try to be of service as much as possible to these people?

And how can I try to make somebody else's life a little bit better? And can that happen in pickleball? Absolutely. Can happen in anything. And I think that's the thing that we sometimes forget. You can listen to as many podcasts as you want, you can read as many books as you want, you can go to as many meetings as you want. But the rubber hits the road in real life, and this isn't real life. Listening to this live stream and podcasts aren't real life. But they can help us. They can help us reorient ourselves.

They can help us kind of just check in. And that's, to me, you know, that's the gift. At any moment during pickleball, if I'm paying attention, if I notice that there's just weight, there's just tension, or I'm not having fun, can I be competitive and have fun? Of course I can. And if it gets to the point, I mean, like, here's a perfect example. And then I'm gonna close. Was playing with a guy who I've met here, really great guy, similar level. We're playing these two guys and we are down. Oof. Like, we're down 13 to 4 and it goes to 15.

And then it was 14. Then we got back and it was like 14 to 8. And then we're like, you know what? Let's just have fun, play our best, and let's just go for it. And we won. We won the game. It was awesome. But at no point was I blaming him or was I viewing these guys as though they're the enemy, or was I getting worked up. It was just, let's just see if we can do this, and let's have fun doing it. Let's wear it all like a loose garment. Man, life is so much better that way. So wishing you all a very, very happy Thanksgiving.

A lot of gratitude. Last week was the focus. Gratitude was. And I think the practice in the AA community and the 12 step community, we talk about practicing these principles in all our affairs. That's my challenge to all of us today. Tomorrow, as we wind down from this holiday, but continue to ramp up for the remaining holidays, is how do we practice these principles in all our affairs so that we can be of love and service to all. That's my practice for me, and that's my hope for my family and anybody who experiences me in the coming month.

Take care, everybody, and happy Saturday. All right. Wishing you the best. Bye.