Infectious Gratitude

When my competitive heart is up for it, I turn on KU basketball. If I miss the game, I’ll look up highlights and commentary or keep an eye on the ESPN app to check the score. The past few years have been an adjustment watching college sports due to the transfer portal. Each year, it feels like a completely new set of players, with players from the previous year declaring for the NBA draft or entering the transfer portal to go to a different college team.

It hasn’t been my favorite change in sports. But this year might have changed my outlook on it. And that’s because we landed Melvin Council Jr., who had played four years at two previous schools.

I think the best snapshot of Melvin Council Jr. is a photo of a teammate dunking a ball and hanging from the rim during a home game against BYU. And where’s Melvin? In the background. Jumping just as high as his teammate, who is dunking. Celebrating his teammate’s basket.

Melvin’s gratitude and joy for playing basketball for the Jayhawks are infectious. I feel it through the screen. I watch him, and it makes me more grateful for whatever I’m doing.

Coach Bill Self says Council Jr. doesn’t get tired and that he could play all day. What fuels that? In addition to strong athleticism and years of hard work, it’s his gratitude for doing what he is doing and getting to do it where he is.

Another recent athlete we’ve seen this with is Alysa Liu, the USA women’s ice skating gold medalist. To have watched her skate without finding yourself smiling at her overflowing joy and gratitude for being at the Olympics would have been quite a difficult task.

Both Alysa and Melvin’s stories involve much more than gratitude. They are both incredibly hardworking, persevering, and diligent. But they also share immense gratitude and joy for getting to do what they do.

Through watching them, I find myself carrying more gratitude through my day-to-day. It’s a mindset shift that brings new energy to the mundane and repetitive. It creates a desire to find the gratitude and joy in whatever I’m doing.

Whether it’s through athletes of your own that you like to watch, or perhaps from some other reminder you come across, may you find a desire to lean into gratitude and joy this week.