Baseball

I was 14 years old and we were playing baseball at Porcupine Plain Saskatchewan. Our team was from Prairie River. It was a practise before the game started. As we were shagging fly balls, I was doing the hitting out at home plate. My attention was diverted for a moment by something or other and when the fielder who caught the fly ball threw in from left field it conked me on the head. I fell to the ground and had a momentary loss of consciousness. My dad came over to me as I was groggily waking up.
    He said,  "Always keep your eye on the ball."  I tucked that in my memory. Good advice even though I was still on the ground. " Keep your eye on the ball"  has to do with focus.  It's not exactly the same as " always keep your stick on the ice"  which is called readiness. It's the fellow-traveler to focus,  It's maintaining a state of readiness. You won't fluff a pass and a shot because your stick is in the air and you're skating like an idiot.
      Life is so fragmented these days that we have a hard time to achieve this effective state. You can only do one thing well at one time if you are anything like me. It's easy to be distracted. If one is easily distracted on the ball diamond, particularly if you are pitching, you are known as  "rabbit  ears". The catcalls from the bleachers and the other bench will be relentless. Fuggedaboudit!
      I'm not going to get conked on the head again. I'm going to keep my eye on the ball. And I'm  going to get the puck and shoot because I'm ready and my stick is on the ice.