chiropractic – We Only Get One Chance

21 YEARS

It amazes me as the years tick by just how much we have accomplished over the first 21 years at Cafe of LIFE Chiropractic.

March 12 was our opening date in 2005. The community that has been created inside of these walls now spills out all over the area as we continue to work at being a household name and “go-to” spot for the best chiropractic care!

It seems that everyone knows everyone in our reception room. People starting care for their first visit run into life-long friends and neighbors. In fact, we had a woman just 2 days ago enter our doors with her toddler son and ran across a woman she has known for years from her church.

This is the kind of community I had always dreamed of creating and now 21 years in, it warms my heart each and every single day.

I have seen children grow up, head off to college, begin their own families and create a difference in their corner of the world. I have watched countless women become moms for the first time, second time, third time…thirteenth time. I have seen servicemen and women head off to serve our country and come back on leave to get adjusted, as well as, adjusting many veterans on a regular basis. I have patients that have moved away from the area and when they come back to visit friends and/or family, they make getting adjusted part of their trip plan!

I have seen families adopt children, lose family members, lose pets, move across the country, change jobs, move to the other side of the world, upgrade their lives, build homes, get married, get divorced, take care of parents, take care of siblings, get out of addiction, get terminal medical diagnosis, beat some powerful disease processes, I have attended births and funerals of patients throughout the years.

We’ve laughed hysterically and cried uncontrollably…all together as a community…we have done it all inside of these walls and it has been an absolute honor to share it all with each one of you!

We are a place that people refer to:

“I have driven by this office for years. I always knew good things were happening in there, I could feel it from the outside and I am glad to be here.”

and

“Even if I were blind-folded and walked in the doors without knowing where I was, I would know something good was about to happen.”

one woman said

“You need to get a HUGE banner and hang it from the front of this house that says ‘Serving SUNSHINE’ because people don’t really have any idea what you are doing in here.”

You have told us that we are your favorite part of your week. Well YOU are the favorite part of ours! We couldn’t do what we do without you.

A BIG THANK YOU!!!! …for referring your friends and loved ones to us. Out of all the things you can say to us, telling others about us is our absolute greatest compliment of all time and we want to say THANK YOU for helping us create this community filled with people looking to improve their health and get more out of life.

Many have asked me “Why is this place called Cafe of LIFE?”

If I had to figure out one thing that we truly offer here at the office, it would be increased QUALITY OF LIFE!! That can mean getting out of pain, heading powerfully into your labor and delivery, growing a healthy baby, recovering from injury, finding peace once baby is here, getting through sickness faster, running faster, playing your sport better, staying healthier through your seasons, feeling better, sleeping better, digesting better, competing at a higher caliber, moving more gracefully through the later years in life or simply just staying healthier…we help with all of that!!! …and SO MUCH MORE!!!

I also need to thank my incredible team!!! Aren’t they all amazing?!?!? I got real lucky that is for sure with my current “dream team”.

As we close in on our 21st year of service, we are so grateful you have joined us and we look forward to continuing to serve you and your family the

“Exceptional Chiropractic Experience”!

THANK YOU!!!!

COFFEE TALK – JANUARY 2026

Your Healthiest Year Yet: A Coffee Talk Recap…and an Invitation

There’s something special that happens when good people, great coffee, and real conversations about health come together—an not to mention FUN!!!

On Thursday, we did our first Coffee Talk: Your Healthiest Year Yet and it was exactly that—easy, energizing, and full of curiosity. Sitting around coffee with me and Rachel Peabody, a wellness nurse I adore collaborating with, we spent an hour talking all things REAL-LIFE HEALTH: how the body works, how to support it, and how small, intentional choices add up to big results.

The vibe?
Casual. Fun. Curious. Zero pressure. Great coffee. Actionable steps.
This is not a “let’s-kick-this-New-Year-and-resolutions-into-high-gear” kind of talk. it was the kind of space where no question feels silly and everyone leaves a little more empowered, with 3 steps that they could take and one on their radar for January.

What We Talked About (in plain English)

We dove into some foundational wellness topics that matter to every body:

Immune function – how your body is designed to protect you every single day and the orchestration of the immune system.
Vitamin C – more than just an “I’m sick” supplement, it is a supplement that should be taken daily as proactive protection to the immune function of the body.
Vitamin D – why it’s so critical, especially in modern life, it’s role in the immune system, and no matter where in the country you live, that you should be taking it year-round, not just in this gray Michigan season.
Magnesium – the unsung hero behind 300 reactions in the body, and just how critical that particular supplement is to take for health, healing and longevity.
Vitamin Injections and Infusions – Their role in keeping the body working optimally, how they are administered, how long they take and how long they last.
Chiropractic care – and its role in helping your nervous system support healing, balance, and resilience

No lectures. No overwhelm. Just expert conversation translated into everyday understanding.

The Best Part? The People.

We had a fantastic group—engaged, thoughtful, and full of great questions. These were people we had already known, and also some brand new faces! There was laughter, lightbulb moments, and even a super fun drawing at the beginning just for showing up because learning should be fun!

What I loved most was watching people connect the dots between:

What their body is doing
Why it might be struggling
And how they can start supporting it—right now to make it the HEALTHIEST YEAR YET!

That’s where real wellness begins.

Why We’re Doing This Again

Because health shouldn’t feel intimidating.
Because wellness works better in community.
And because 2026 deserves to be different.

If you’ve been thinking:

“I want more energy.”
“I want to feel stronger and more resilient.”
“I want to understand my body instead of fighting it.”

This is for you.

Join Us for the Next Coffee Talk ☕

📅 Thursday, February 12
⏰ 8:30–9:30 AM
📍 Bring a friend. Grab a coffee. Come curious.

Whether you’re just beginning your wellness journey or looking to level it up, these conversations are designed to meet you where you are—and help you take the next step.

Let’s make 2026 YOUR healthiest year yet—together.

I can’t wait to see you on the adjusting table this month and again for a COFFEE TALK next month! Mark your calendars and reach out to us to save your seat! (810)629-6023

BIG BLUE – 7 YEARS

We Bought a Big Blue Building… and Turned It Into a Thriving Center for Well-Being 7 Years ago!

On June 14, 2018, we took a leap of faith and purchased this BIG BLUE BEAUTY right in the heart of our incredible downtown. It was bold. It was bright. And it had potential written all over it. Fast forward to today—and that building is now a vibrant Center for Well-Being, full of life, healing, and community energy. We are beyond proud to say that we’re thriving!

This space has become more than just a building. It’s a place where people come to feel better, move better, think more clearly, and reconnect with their health. What started as a dream has grown into a home for chiropractic care, wellness services, positive energy, and meaningful connections. And we’re just getting started!

To celebrate 7 amazing years in our downtown wellness hub, we’re throwing a party—and not just any party. It’s called “Orange You Glad You’re Here?” and it’s going to be as fun and funky as it sounds! Think vintage orange VW buses, fresh oranges, an orange-themed dress code, orange snacks, orange drinks, and enough photo ops to make your social media shine. We’ll also be hosting a trivia game, a fun scavenger hunt, and some exciting giveaways and specials!

What’s even more exciting? Other health and wellness tenants from our building will be joining in the fun too. It’s going to be a full-on community celebration of health, happiness, and the power of showing up for yourself, your family and others. Whether you’ve just driven by 1 million times, you are a longtime patient or new to the neighborhood, we want you here to share in a fun and joyful community celebration.

This celebration is more than just a party—it’s a thank-you to the community that believed in us, supported us, and grew with us. From day one, our goal has been to create a welcoming space where people feel seen, heard, and cared for. Every adjustment, conversation, and step forward we’ve shared with you has helped shape what this building stands for today. We couldn’t have done it without you—and honestly, we wouldn’t want to.

So orange you glad you’re here? We sure are. Join us in celebrating this milestone, our beautiful building, and the amazing community that continues to grow inside it. Here’s to health, connection, and many more years of thriving—together at BIG BLUE!!!

Mark your calendar: Saturday, June 14th 9a-11a

DOUBLE DOWN

A common theme for the end of the year has been to DOUBLE DOWN!

There are a couple ways to navigate the holiday season and head into the New Year.

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The first is to rest on your laurels, let some of the commitments to yourself and your life slack, enjoy the holidays, partake in all the sugary celebrations and day by day become more sluggish on all levels of life.

The second way is to DOUBLE DOWN on your commitments to yourself and your health, clean up your diet and water intake immediately following holiday overindulgences and keep a steady state in your exercise routine.

Every Thursday at 1pm EST, Dr Paula Ruffin and I are live on YouTube and streaming to our social media platforms as we discuss the most pertinent topics of the week in our offices. It has been a great way to connect with all of you and continue to share the messages of health and wellness beyond the four walls of our individual offices. …and it is a LOT OF FUN!

If January 1st, 2025 were the starting line of a race, most people are standing at the starting line and will take off when signaled. If you can picture that in your mind, it is as though a HUGE GROUP of people are standing together in crowds at the start of a 5K race. When the gunshot goes off, everyone starts from that stand still.

The most recent topic has been how to end the year in the strongest way possible and be sure we begin 2025 running at full speed!

If you go strong with your commitments to yourself and however you want 2025 to go, starting right now, you will not be standing still on that starting line. It will be as though you come walking/jogging/sprinting right up to that line and bust through all those who were just standing and waiting for the time to “start”.

When it comes to our health, mindset, work, relationship, etc goals for the year to come, get heading in that direction RIGHT NOW!

Yes, still sit back and enjoy all the cheer of the beautiful holiday season we have ahead of us, but then when the Mondays roll around, clean up the weekend, clean up the body and your health and get going again.

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Looking back on even this past weekend, I had two big celebrations, one Friday night and one Saturday night. Yes I had a couple drinks and delicious food and deserts. But I woke up this morning and chugged a bunch of water, got outside for fresh air and finished the day with an hour long sauna session to sweat it out and detox.

Monday morning will also start with water, fresh air and then heading into the week of work, I stay super committed to being at the gym or yoga studio every single day. If my schedule does not work to make it to either of those, there will be time to get a good 20 minute extra walk in somewhere.

Here is the thing, the choices we make today not only effect today, they really add to or subtract from our internal resilience for the days/weeks/months/years to come. When we can put daily deposits into our internal “resilience fund” we will be able to, not only navigate the holiday season well, we will also be able to stay strong and healthy to ENJOY all the season brings!

So what if you just took this simple idea to DOUBLE DOWN and be sure your commitments to yourself stay front and center in your days ahead. You will not only benefit now, but when the starting line of 2025 is in sight, you will already be IN MOTION! ….and we all know the great law if inertia – A body in motion wants to STAY IN MOTION!

So ask yourself, is there a place in your life that you can DOUBLE DOWN??? Share below in a comment, I want to hear it! You got this!!

SPRINGTIME

There is something super magical about SPRINGTIME here in Michigan and I know you are all feeling it!

Best Chiropractor Fenton Michigan - Dr Erica Peabody - Expansion

Being that our office is right downtown, we are all always so happy to be part of the walking culture that the DDA of Fenton created for this community!

I often walk outside after a day of work and take a quick jaunt down the street to the post office and put the outgoing mail in the mailbox. Since I am just half a block from there, I usually just continue on around at least the block. But since I am heading around one block, I usually pick one more block….and then one more…and that is how a 20-30 minute walk is done. It goes along with the Law if Inertia – a body in motion will tend to stay in motion…

And if any of you spend any time downtown Fenton, you realize just how much pride people have put into their homes and businesses and IT IS BEAUTIFUL down here!

Best Chiropractor Fenton Michigan - Dr Erica Peabody Blossoms

Sitting front and center in town for almost 6 solid years already (ALREADY!!!!!), we see lots of people out walking, biking and strolling around. We often see sports teams running by in big groups from Fenton Middle School and Fenton High School. We love all the energy as our community has become a small hub of people taking good care of their bodies and getting their exercise in.

A friend of mine was asking me yesterday how many gyms and fitness centers are in the city of Fenton. I began to list them and it was upwards between 12+ that I could name off the top of my head and I am sure there were some that were skipping my mind. We are fortunate as our city grows, so does our health and wellness culture surrounding it all!

The Peabody Center for Well-Being is the location of Cafe of LIFE Chiropractic office, my chiropractic office and this building is completely occupied with some of the area’s greatest health/wellness/well-being professionals in the area!

Even after 6 years in this location, and many of those years with occupied office spaces, it surprises a lot of people to know that the building houses so many awesome businesses.

About a year ago, we launched a website that serves as a building directory. This is a virtual landing page for all the professionals in the building. I wanted to take a moment and invite you to take a glance through and connect with the businesses that can help you along you and your family’s health and wellness journey!

www.healthyfenton.com

Best Chiropractor Fenton Michigan - 3 Days In - Dr Erica Peabody (810)69-6023 - Grouchy

Take a moment and browse through the site. This is the location that allows you to directly connect and contact each person to set up your appointments! We keep this information up to date to help you!

Enjoy the SPRINGTIME energy of our world right now and make a plan for the healthiest and happiest season ever!

(CLICK LINK BELOW TO ACCESS BUILDING DIRECTORY)

https://www.healthyfenton.com

DOWNTIME

It is so critical to our well-being to take some downtime.

This past week has been just that for me. We only close the office 2 weeks out of the year and we choose to focus one of the weeks around the Fourth of July. Everyone is heading in so many different directions with vacation plans that it is simple for us to take the downtime too.

But is it simple? Do you have an easy time relaxing? Do you take moments to breathe? Do you schedule your own downtime?

For me, it is not easy. What I have discovered over the 18+ years in private practice is that it is just simpler to stay open and keep going rather than mark off downtime.

I actually find that I do a whole lot better with regular scheduled days filled with routine. It takes a lot of mental fortitude to just allow myself to sit still.

Last summer, I decided for the first time to just stay home and have a “staycation” instead of trying to get out of town. I live just 4 miles from the office and knowing things are building up around there is hard not to go in and try to keep up with it all. Running a business like we do, people often think that it is just patient care that is the work to do. If you had any idea what happens behind the scenes, you would soon realize that patient care is about 60% of what goes on.

Patient care is something to set aside for a week just for my mental health and to give my body and mind a rest for the week. The rest of the work is the part that haunts me as I try to sit home and sit still. And if I admit to the truth of it all, it has been really hard to let it all go.

When I am out of town, it is easier because I am not just 4 miles from all the work. Next year I will probably go into debates about how to spend this week because of the internal battle I have faced this past week…and this is just me being honest as to really how it all feels.

In saying all that, I am excited to get back to work, get back to helping people and begin the catch-up game that will go on for at least 2 weeks.

I have spent the week with the dogs and my family. I have enjoyed a ton of time outside and gotten a lot of good sunshine. I have had time to break bread with friends, catch up with a few online tasks, take a TON of yoga classes (www.discoverthespace.com), walk the dags and float around in the lake. It has been glorious.

I know for a fact that I could continue on and not take downtime, however, when I do, I am able to return more refreshed and ready to take on the second half of the year. I am a person dedicated to and driven by progress. As long as life has progress happening daily, my soul is happy.

What I am now realizing is that downtime is still making progress. Live and learn…see you tomorrow!

BE MINDFUL

I am hoping that you are connected with us over Facebook, but if not, HERE IS THE LINK to go straight there. You can also look me up individually and follow that way. I have been doing some live shares over facebook as I drive and think and the last one was a warning to BE MINDFUL!!!

…and here is why that came up.

Last Wednesday I was in my practice and a woman came in that had been under care in the past but had to take some time off to heal from a fall where she fractured a vertebra in her neck. She was carrying a box down a set of stairs and stepped off the side in a bad way and hit the back of her neck on a steel handrail resulting in a fracture. She has healed well and is ready to get back under regular chiropractic care (some of you may be curious at this point that I can even adjust someone with this kind of injury. I want to remind you that I have a lot of tools in my bag of chiropractic techniques that allows me to work with and around all kinds of injuries as each person’s care is tailored for each individual and their needs).

I see a lot of people with injuries which probably goes without saying. Some of the stories make my stomach churn as the phrase that follows is always “WOW! That could have been way worse!!”

The next patient that same day was up north and cleaning up the kitchen and tripped over the dishwasher door that was out of her line of sight. This resulted in yet another conversation that went “Wow! That could have been a whole lot worse!” The final one that day was a slip and fall while getting into the car and sliding right underneath the vehicle…which “Could have been a whole lot worse!”

Our lives are super busy these days. I have to be honest, I am trying to do too much at once, carry too much at once and my brain is filled with all kinds of running thoughts also!!! I am in that same club however when I get to see these kinds of injuries, I take note of the theme. The running theme of all of these injuries…trying to do too much at the same time. Me too!! Me too.

Be mindful. Easier said than done often. What I notice for myself is that if I can slow down my mind to focus on the task at hand, I am so much safer, healthier and happier.

Being mindful wouldn’t necessarily have prevented these injuries however, we can’t know for sure, it may have. It is always hard to say at the time and easier to reflect backwards to see situations retrospectively.

I was getting ready the very next day and listing to a podcast or making a video for a friend AND curling my hair at the same time. Without looking down at my curling iron, I didn’t realize that it had spun around and was facing the other direction. When I reached down and thought I was grabbing the handle, I was actually grabbing the hot barrel, resulting in burning the pads of my thumb and two fingers.

When that happened, my first thought was how easily that would have been avoided by simply being present, looking up and then looking back down. I am notorious for trying to do too many things at once. As I navigate through my days, I notice just how many things I drop and realize that is a strong indication that I am not fully paying attention.

Look around in your life. Where do you find yourself trying to do too many things at once? Have you stumbled as you were trying to do something else? How many different directions do you think the mind can handle going in and still pay attention?

Be mindful.

Being mindful is much easier said than done however I am hoping by just having this brief read and reminder, it is more in the forefront of your mind as you navigate through your days.

I am not minimizing any of the things I mentioned before nor am I saying that they for sure could have been avoided. I just wanted to share this theme of the week so that you can be mindful too.

FOUR YEARS

So many things can happen over the course of four years. Four years ago today, June 14, I purchased Big Blue. Some people say that I should have started referring to it as THE CENTER or something more “on brand”. But honestly, Big Blue was mentioned at one point and stuck and so here we are.

I share this story a lot but I first saw the building on Zillow. My Mom and I are always looking around at real estate on that app just to see what is out there. When I saw the building, I sent a quick screen shot and message to my realtor. “What is up with this place? What is the story?”

His response, “I don’t know but let’s go and take a look!”

It used to be an assisted living facility so when we initially walked through we had to pretend that we were “looking for a spot for family members to live”. A sale like that that had to be that way due to the business and employees and how the sale was being concealed.

Prior to going inside, my Mom and I said to each other, “let’s take a look but more than likely this place will smell weird, be weird or be unrecoverable from what it had been through.”

Half way through this 10,000 sq ft beauty, my Mom and I both looked to each other and said “Wow this place is amazing and already set up for what I want to do.”

And so the due diligence process began. That started in February of 2018 and I finally closed June 14.

When patients visit us for the first time, they look around in awe of the beauty that is so natural to Big Blue. Even after 130 years, it has the original woodwork, original wood stain color and craftmanship that is not seen in current day construction. It is absolutely beautiful and feels like working inside of a museum. If only the walls could talk, I can only begin to imagine the stories they would share.

The purchase of Big Blue has not been without its downfalls though. As most of you know, I had a very serious “life sidekick” when I began this project. That didn’t last like we had planned which threw life through a loop…but here we are still standing and thriving inside this space.

We have many businesses join us over the past 4 years, incredible practitioners helping to increase the health and wellness in and around our beautiful community. The services offered inside Big Blue include: chiropractic care, massage therapy, supplements, acupuncture, family therapy, psychotherapy, speech therapy, esthetician, life coach, reiki master, photography as well as connection with hypnotherapy and functional medicine. As you can probably imagine, there are a few more business partnerships in the works for the future.

The practitioners that are currently in our building have taken great pride to enhance their office spaces and I will share a sneak peek into their working spaces in the near future so you can get a feel. I feel fortunate to have business owners taking such pride in beatifying their office spaces.

There is a “special something” in the air at this spot that is inherent to the building itself. Although the business prior to us did well, a revived energy to Big Blue has been a welcomed addition to the center of our growing and bustling downtown Fenton.

People often say “I have driven by this building thousands of times, I am so glad to be able to finally see inside!”

There is a long, beautiful and thriving future for this building and we are so happy to be just the ones to help make that happen!

Swing in and say hello! Or get in touch with one of the providers inside of the building and experience for yourself. I am in awe of the first four years, I can only imagine what the next four years will bring!

DARKNESS

It has been an interesting year of darkness to say the least. <—-truly an understatement in many ways.

A couple weeks ago I traveled to Colorado to visit some friends. It happened to be Halloween weekend and a friend of a friend was having a “Dia De Los Muertos” (Day of the Dead) housewarming party.

Traveling with a carry-on bag, I was limited to what I could pack considering I was there a three day weekend and needed to pack light. A skeleton onsie it is!!! …and it was perfect for a Day of the Dead party.

As I look back on previous Halloween celebrations, I have a very clear pattern of being light and happy in my costume choices, many different versions of hippies, nerd costumes or animals…all in the light.

The only addition to my costume I needed once I got there was makeup. I had googled “skeleton makeup” pictures and tried to follow along. It turned out pretty good if I don’t say so myself.

Of course 5’10” in a skeleton onsie, adding heels and hair I was at least 6’3″ and a bit of a sight!

The party was fun and everyone had put a lot of effort into their costumes which just raised the energy! I was surprised when a roller-derby couple rolled in off the sidewalks in roller skates – off those particular sidewalks THAT WAS COMMITMENT!!!

We had great food, a bit to drink and took a lot of pictures.

It was interesting to feel like me but look so, so different in the mirror and so I posted some pictures on social media, and many others thought the same.

Some comments on the posts and many more messages behind the scenes were of the tone “Wow! I have never seen you look like that before!” ‘I’ve never seen that side of you!”

One of the things that has happened is our culture has taught us that to have a good life, things always need to be good. We need to find the light in all situations and to “always look for the silver lining”.

All of this is great and wonderful but life is both; moments of lightness balanced by moments of darkness. That is just how it goes. One of the biggest challenges we face today is that life has become very comfortable…until it became very uncomfortable about 20 months ago.

When we look out at the lives of the people we are connected with over social media, we get the “highlight reel”. Of course we do! Why would anyone put their moments of darkness on social media? We wouldn’t. But the game of comparison we all play with those connections can lead us to stop believing in ourselves if our life doesn’t look like that.

A super near and dear friend used to do a weekly Facebook Live share called “Best Day Ever”. The irony of it was that she would sit with a cup of tea with the phrase “Best Day Ever” written on it. She was also in her beautiful office in a wonderful area of the country. BUT she never preached “Brightest Day Ever” or “Good Vibes Only” or “Stay in the Light”. She would share how LIFE IS BALANCE. It is the light and the dark, the good and the bad, the pretty and the ugly…and our expectations that it should be any other way is what creates the suffering. Truly the Best Day Ever is when we can accept and embrace all of it.

It is an ebb and flow, an expansion followed by a contraction, highs and lows.

So let’s stop pretending to be any other way…and I am also talking to myself here.

When I post up a simple picture of me dressed as a skeleton, I realize even how polarizing of an imagine I have put out as well!

We are both light and dark, life is filled with moments of lightness and moments of darkness, and it is ok. It is supposed to be that way.

When we really look around, and especially in the seemingly crazy world we find ourselves in right now, it feels like a whole lot of darkness. It feels polarized, divided, disorganized, unpredictable, inconsistent and actually scary at times.

Is it because we were so comfortable for so long? Is it because we had it so good for so long? Has there been too much flow and not enough ebb?

Gosh it is so incredibly hard to say and absolutely no way to predict exactly what is ahead for all of us.

I have to share a little life hack that may or may not be helpful for you, but it helps me tremendously:

Breathe into the resistance.

“What does that even mean, Peabody? It is not that simple.”

I agree. Sort of.

I would say that it is not EASY but it can be SIMPLE.

When you feel your insides bind up, alarms go off and you go into high alert, stop and take a moment to see if you can breathe into the resistance you are putting up to what is in front of you.

Then realize that you have survived 100% of all the bad days so far, you will get through this too. There is a great quote that goes something like “If this is not going to matter 5 years from now, do not give it even 5 minutes now”.

Life is always going to be both, light and dark, that is how the Universe stays in balance. I was a little taken aback by the response to this simple Halloween costume but the darkness that I appeared to embody that day is something that I will be looking closer at in my own life.

Are you noticing lightness and darkness in your life? If you get a chance, share with me what you do when you see that resistance come up for you. Let’s make the most of this life…we only get one chance.

KEEP IT SIMPLE

Last weekend, I spent Sunday morning at my niece’s first volleyball tournament. Through the years, she has grown fond of the game. This is the very first year she has had the opportunity to play on an organized team.

I had a sleepover with her the night before and she was very disciplined to be in bed and sleeping early enough to get good rest for this first tournament of the season. We had to leave at 7am to make it to the tournament on time and she knew she wanted to feel her best.

A few of the teams backed out of the tournament and so there were 5 team total in the 12 and under age group. I rode with her Mom and her to the courts and chatted about the team, practices and preparation for the tournament. I realized they hadn’t had an opportunity to do more than just a couple practices since the team was just established that week.

I think there were even conversations from the coach ahead of time that sounded something like “Let’s go and do our best and this will probably be a good learning experience.” “Some of the other teams had been practicing for a couple months together and had played the previous season together.”

I wasn’t expecting much but I wanted to be able to go and watch since these opportunities are few and far between these days with all the limits and restrictions inside of pandemic team sports seasons.

So they began to play, and even though they didn’t have any super fancy moves to showcase, they knew how to serve, bump and set the ball and get it over the net.

It was interesting to watch some of the other teams. It was easy to see that they had been playing together for an extended period of time because they had all the cheers and team comraderies that you will generally see from an advanced team.

One team in particular had all their cheers synchronized, from warm-up all the way through each game for the whole tournament.

At the 10-12 year age, if you had interest in volleyball, some have been studying parts of the game and had some “plays” to run inside of their sets. I could see it from the stands that they had very ambitious coaches teaching them just how to put and bump, set and spike together, “3 hit plays”.

But let’s be realistic, not a lot of these “3 hit plays” panned out. They had good understanding of the plays but inability to continually execute. They would keep trying and ultimately they would lose point after point after point.

Our team, with very limited practice time together and minimal understanding of how to execute the advanced plays, would continue to bump and set the ball back over the net to a team that was busy trying to gather their thoughts and “plays” again. They ball would drop as players were scrambling around and another point was scored by our team.

Serving was the same way. Yes, every volleyball player strives to have a powerful overhand serve but age 10-12, it was rare to have consistent strength and power to get it over the net. Consistent UNDERhand serves by our team were getting unreturned and more points added to the scoreboard.

Set after set they won. If you know volleyball, you know that it is best 2 of 3 sets wins the match and if you win the first 2 sets, you don’t even have to play a third set and is a win for the match. Our team won the first 2 sets of each match for the first 3 games of the tournament. The final match they won the first set and lost the second set. This time they were playing against the team with all the coordinated cheers and team comraderies. There isn’t a super high competitive level at this age but you could feel the tension in our team after finally losing a set.

They played that final set, beat the other team to win the match, AND ultimately that put them in first place for the entire tournament. Great job team!!!

I have been thinking about the tournament and the successful experience these young ladies got to have that weekend and it reminded me about the big picture of life in general.

This brand new volleyball team winning an entire tournament after just 2 practices together can give us great perspective about moving forward in life. Simply focusing on the basics and keeping the passes simple led my niece and her inexperienced team to win an entire tournament. “Get the ball over the net” turned out to be a winning focus. Starting with the basics is the very best way to build a great foundation for moving forward.

Those young ladies left the gym that day with their heads held high. This is the very beginning of their season and to start out by keeping things simple and winning, gets their group off to an awesome start. Rest assured, when they are ready to add some more strategy into their play, they have the best place to start from.

Looking around your life, where are you trying to set up the “3 hit plays” and fumbling where just bumping and setting the tasks could lead to more consistency, ease and success? Where can you simplify your progress and keep things simple? Where can you go back to the foundation that you started from and review/practice some of the steps that got you to the place you are? Can you look back to the simple first steps and find more consistency to build on?

Life has gotten pretty complicated these days. The world has gotten complex and confusing. Let get back to the basics and keep it simple wherever possible.