Are You Available?

I loved baseball when I was a kid.  From the time I could walk I was always trying to catch up with my older brother to go outside and play with him and my dad.  I grew up a Montreal Expos fan, because when you live in northern Maine in the 1980’s you only get 4 television stations, and 2 of those are Canadian.   The Expos were on TV almost every night in the summer, and watching those games is how I learned to play the game. 

Mike Trout is a great player for the LA Angels, and some think he may have been one of the best baseball players of all-time if he wasn’t injured so often.  Some wonder “what might have been” if he had stayed healthy, but he wasn’t always available to the team.     

Cal Ripken Jr. on the other hand, was available almost every day from 1982 to 1998, having played in 2,632 consecutive games without taking one day off.  The “Iron Man” was durable to say the least and he was always available no matter what. 

This reminds me of that saying, “the best ability is often availability”.   Cal Ripken Jr. was always available; you could write his name in pen on the lineup card.  Mike Trout, not so much. 

This makes me think about being available and what that means to me.  Am I always available to those who need me?  I’d like to think so. I come to work every day, show up on time, and I go to all those meetings, respond to emails, and do my best to be there.  But am I always available to staff when they need me?  And more importantly, am I always available to my family at home?   Being always available is a tough task.

As I think about availability this month, I hope I can be more focused on living in the moment.  Perhaps to increase my awareness and to be more thoughtful of the others around me, than living in my own little world. 

Can we all be more available to our families, spouses, co-workers, neighbors, and friends? 

Sometimes it doesn’t take much to be available, just a recognition to look outwards and to be there for someone else.  The best ability may in fact be availability. 

  “Availability is the capacity to be of value or use.”