A while back a book I read talked about the concept of knowing who your “home team” is. She explains it much better than I could, so I’ll post the section here. (not surprising, seeing as it’s her concept)
“Everybody has a home team: it’s the people you call when you get a flat tire or when something terrible happens. It’s the people who, near or far, know everything that’s wrong with you and love you anyway. The home team people are the ones you can text with five minutes’ notice, saying, I’m on my way, and I’m bringing tacos.” ~Bittersweet, by Shauna Niequist, p. 187
For a while after reading that I spent a fair amount of time thinking about who my home team is. It kind of surprised me as I thought about it–some of the people who immediately came to mind as being on it, as well as some who came to mind that wouldn’t make the cut. I got a little too caught up in thinking about it though, and trying to determine if people could be trusted enough to bring onto my home team.
And I messed up. I’ve realized there are people who should be on it that I didn’t think were, and others who I thought were worthy of it that aren’t so worthy as maybe I would have liked.
Her point here is not that everyone should carry around a list in their back pocket of their home team and only interact with those people. Not at all. It’s simply that there is a limited amount of time and energy one can devote to relationships, and when it comes down to it, there are those that have more ultimate importance than others. Those are the ones that need to get concentrated on.
I want to be careful here though. The thing is, a home team isn’t stagnant–it’s always changing. Like I said, I messed up when I first thought about mine. Over the years mine has changed a lot, and will continue to do so–especially in the next couple of years as I graduate from college and move on to “the real world” and living like a grown up. (I shudder at the thought of this. eesh) There are some people that will undoubtedly remain on it, and others…well, I suppose that remains to be seen.
The home team is not meant to be exclusive. Just because I have a relative idea of who is on mine doesn’t mean I don’t ever want to hang out with other people–that is far from the truth. If anything it may propel me to seek others out even more, because I love making friends, and if it means I am so fortunate as to have one more person added to my home team, great.
Of course, there’s the tragic side of it too–when I lose people from it. Sometimes it happens slowly, or all of a sudden. Either way it’s not fun. Natural maybe, because there can only be so many people at a time that I can be super close to, but loss is still that…loss.
Anyway, it’s a concept I’ve been pondering. The home team.
Til next time…
~Brianna!~
The Art of Becoming 