You begin by sitting up on the rug or the tickly green grass and your mom or dad or brother or sister rolls it to you. You learn to roll it back.

Then, you get a bit older and your mom or dad or brother or sister or friend throws it to you and you learn to catch it.

You put on a team T shirt and you learn to kick, punt, shoot, volley, spike, putt, and pass the ball.

Then you graduate to adulthood.  You start to learn how to juggle the balls. You spend less time with a physical ball and more with metaphorical ones.  One is work, another is play, and slowly more balls get added.  There are relationships. There is family. There are hobbies. There is travel.  There are old friends and new ones.

You become skilled at juggling a few balls, but somehow someone keeps throwing in new, unexpected ones.

Then, you become a parent.

All of a sudden it goes from juggling to full on dodgeball.  If you take it too seriously you’re going to get hurt.  So just grab a ball, start throwing and catching, and when in doubt, just duck!