A Sense of Where You Are

“When you have played basketball for a while, you don’t need to look at the basket, when you are in close like this,” he said, throwing it over his shoulder again and right through the hoop. “You develop a sense of where you are.” These words from basketball great William Warren (Bill) Bradley in a 1965 interview with John McPhee chronicled Bradley’s career as a super star basketball player.

Bradley could throw a basketball from just about anywhere on the near side of the half court line and make a basket with just pure net. No bouncing off the rim for him. His skill, talent and discipline took him far in the world of basketball.

His superstardom in basketball was (I confess) not nearly as interesting as his observation that he developed a sense of where he was. To be so intimately related to a space that one has a sense of where one is without needing to look is remarkable. This sense of where Bradley was carried him through a lengthy and diverse career that no doubt put him in situations he could never imagine, both on and off the court.

I wonder how many of us have such a sense of intimacy with our own lives that we know where we are without having to look. This last year has sent many of us out into the weeds in more ways than we can count. We have been knocked off every pin that holds us in place on the bulletin board of life. Not much looks the same as it did a little over a year ago.

Life feels very strange.  Jobs have evaporated, financial security is precarious for many and food insecurity has sent people who were used to donating to the food pantry to that same pantry for help. Rent and mortgage payments are eeked out with little left to spare. The end of the struggle seems nowhere in sight.

Knowing where we are in times like this is the foundation that keeps us standing firm when everything else is shifting around us. We know we are further from the life we lived a year or so ago, but that doesn’t mean we are lost. The stuff around us has moved. We have not. We stand in the same place on the same rock we have built our lives on since we first discovered there was a rock on which to stand. Not everyone has the same rock or calls it the same thing. What’s important is that it’s a place to stand.

It may be family, it may be a community that sustains us or it may be an intimate group of friends who commit to being there for each other. There are as many rocks as there are people who stand on them.  When it seems like everything is shifting it’s worth taking a look at our rock and seeing what it’s all about. Such reminders are grounding, if you’ll pardon the pun.

Most of the rocks I hear people talk about are relationships. We stand on the strength of the relationships around us. They steady us and hold us up when we can’t do it on our own. They may be the people who work at the food pantry, staff the rental assistance office or the utility assistance office. The rocks may be closer to home. And, as Bradley noted, when you’ve been at it for a while “you develop a sense of where you are.”

Take note of your rock. Is it big enough to stand on comfortably? Is it rough or smooth? Is it slimy or clean? Is it flat or round? Does it have any rough edges? Are there other rocks adjacent to it? Is it above the surface of the water or below? Does it sit on a forest bed or in a desert? What else do you notice about your rock, this place where you stand and have a sense of where you are? Is it enough or do you need to change rocks? Only you can decide if your rock is still right for you. If it isn’t, you can change. You will still have a sense of where you are.