Golf Heaven
Golf Heaven
Golf Heaven
Standing on the green fairway with a slight breeze rustling through the trees, the sound of a squirrel climbing up bark while you calculate the distance from your ball to the pin and what club must be used, taking into account the direction of the wind, the dryness of the ground, the angle of the slope to the pin, and your physical well-being this day all comes together in the next moments in time. Club selection complete, a practice swing, addressing the ball, and then the repetitive thoughts in your head as you swing through the stroke. A strike of the ball sends in flying through the air to land on the green surface and to roll as you watch toward the hole. If magic is in the air, the ball disappears into the hole and is out of sight. An adrenaline rush fuels your response and you know that this moment is absolute heaven. Nothing greater at this second in time.
This moment in heaven is not disrupted by the stresses occurring in daily life, because the concentration necessary for that spectacular shot, that eagle or birdie that moved your score to a better place, that accomplishment that you know is more luck than skill much of the time, is also a moment of escape from the stress that you deal with in the world outside of the golf course.
All people struggle at times with stress. Stress is a physiological reaction to changes in the environment and the body's natural response. By now, most of us have heard that there are good stressors and bad stressors but that the body does not distinguish between the two; that's a distinction the mind makes rather than the body. So a person will react in the same basic ways whether they are faced with a diagnosis of cancer, learning that their beloved animal has been lost, being told that they are fired from their job or they are purchasing their first home, getting married, or attending their first award ceremony for the work that's being recognized. The body responds to all of these events by turning on. That means that the nervous system, referred to as the sympathetic nervous system, springs into action. The adrenal glands on the top of the kidney areas send the needed chemicals throughout your body to get you ready to react. Your heart rate increases and your blood races throughout. You are ready for fight or flight and can handle the situation with all of your increased energy.
Wow. How many times in a day do we face this? How many times are we facing a version of this? So many it's hard to imagine how everyone does not have an anxiety disorder where the sympathetic nervous system gets stuck in the on position. With the driving of a car and watching for others so that we are not hit, to the grabbing of the chicken from the freezer to make sure there is something to cook for dinner this night, to the packing of the medicine for our baby who is going to daycare, to the recognition that our spouse seems irritated again and wondering what we might have done and how to fix it, the day is filled with normal events that can give us stress. Psychologists know that the stress of these situations is handled by most people. When someone is not able to handle it and their reactions become less than optimal, they have the options of coming to therapy or counseling and talking about their situations and learning how to respond in a healthier way. Sometimes talking is the most effective, sometimes learning relaxation training to control the body's reactions, and sometimes taking medications can help. But sometimes what is really needed, what is really going to help, what a person really needs to take time for is getting away from the things that are stressing them out. That's where the hobby, the fun, the outside activity holds a valuable place typically ignored in the everyday hustle of being an adult with responsibilities. For me, it's golf.
Golf is a hobby that can provide an incredible experience that is therapeutic. The morning that a game is planned has a magic that someone who enjoys the game begins to anticipate the shots that will play out in the next few hours, if the magic occurs.
When arriving at the course, the stresses of your personal life have no real relevance. You begin to focus on the weather that day, the clubs you brought, and who your partners in the momentous upcoming events are going to be. A slight level of stress is there when you think about these things, but you quickly take a breath and let it go because this is a fun day, this is your day, and this is the time to get away and have a blast.
Golf, for those who have learned how to play even moderately well, is a fabulous sport. Remaining calm in the face of the errant drive from the tee, calculating how to recover from a shot in the rough, a landing in the bunker, or a need to drop because the ball took a swim in the tank. When the perfect shot is hit, the moment of watching the ball move toward your goal becomes a slow motion event. The avid golfer can talk months later about that shot and how it curved in the air and rolled onto the green and then fell into the hole. Golfers find themselves in a world where they focus on the present as they play and not worry about the outside world where future problems or past stressors are less important. When those thoughts of the outside world begin to intrude on the play, the golfer can see his game deteriorate and has to refocus on the next shot. The club selection, the calculation of where the ball may go, and the thoughts that make that swing smooth and through the ball become the focus. And when that hit occurs and all of the outside world is gone, the magical moment of seeing the ball fly through the air and land in the intended area is perfect. For that second in time, nothing else matters. A feeling of Thank you God occurs. Someone once asked me if I thought there would be golf in heaven, and I gave this serious consideration. I do think that God is a golfer. How else has He managed to watch mankind throughout the ages and not given up on us entirely? Even our Creator must have times when He can get away and relax from the stress we clearly give Him. And what would heaven be like if we didn't get to play golf? I don't need streets of gold, thank you very much. Give me a green fairway, some trees and challenges, and a green with a flag stuck in a hole and let me play, play, play. Golf is heaven.
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