This is a short story…but I get so much from my probation clients. Many things go unsaid but are simply absorbed by me…but this time, I have something to write about.
9:00am Monday Morning:
One of my favorite guys comes walking into the office for an appointment. He’s on probation for a felony committed in another state, and over the past 6-7 months of getting to know how he’s wired, I’ve decided he’s a guy I could remain in contact with if I leave Probation.
Today, after the usual updates on how probation is going, we began talking about life. He talked about the success of their growing business located in the downtown area, his pitbulls getting maced by the police while he was enjoying dinner out with his wife, (I’ll spare the details of that situation) and the transition he and his wife have had to make financially since the drug money is no longer “flowing” as it was in his previous lifestyle. Did I tell you I like this dude? I totally love this dude’s candid matter-of-fact communication with me. It’s the talk of a guy who’s cleared the skeleton’s out of the closet and no longer fears any unidentified bones surfacing.
There are times when clients offer insight from where they stand, and it causes me to grab my notepad and jot down the inspirations I receive. Today was one of those times.
As conversation turned to the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday later this week, my client stated, “in our family, we don’t do the Halloween to Christmas jump.” He went on to elaborate about how our culture seems to transition from Halloween right into Christmas-mode. He wanted to make a case for the importance of Thanksgiving, and he wondered aloud about how Thanksgiving seems to have taken a backseat in our materialistic culture. Keep in mind…this is coming from a guy who has $6400 worth of rims on 2 separate vehicles courtesy of a former way of life…and I won’t even mention the cost of the tires.
He became reflective and talked about how blessed he is, and how grateful he is for how his life is evolving. He thought back on how different a year makes as he considered the heavy weight hanging over the family during the holiday season of 2016 as they awaited his sentencing and the potential outcomes to his felony case in the other state. He talked about how he gets to wake up to his kids, create a business with his wife, and build his own [legal] business now. He appreciated a restart on life.
My mind began thinking about “mulligans”.
Mulligans
Mulligan are a golf term for another chance…a new ball. They’re typically taken when a T-shot hooks or slices way out of bounds, and if the player tried to find the ball and play it where it lay, it would be a struggle to get through that hole. By calling “Mulligan!”, they are simply grabbing a new ball, placing it on the golf tee, and swinging away in hopes of getting a better result. Yeah, I know…this isn’t a scenario you see play out on the pro golf tour.
My friend has done prison time, and he danced with the devil again leading to his current legal issues. But now, he’s enjoying the full benefit of taking a “mulligan”. Something took place within him, and he’s seeing things differently. He’s appreciative; he’s hard working; and although he would be the first one to take accountability for any heavy sentence brought down by the Courts, he’s stepping up to the T-box and he’s driving that new ball straight down the middle of the fairway.
And with this fresh start, he’s unwilling to blow right over Thanksgiving and head into Christmas because in his world, there’s no Christmas without first experiencing Thanksgiving.
Just a simple story of an incredible father and husband who we would never know about if we didn’t open the pages and read the book. Sometimes…what we read on paper does lie.