I enjoy watching the summer Olympics…
Especially those events I know something about…swimming, diving, soccer, track and field. I marvel at the skill, the speed, the finesse, the form of those athletes who participate.  But, after watching the Opening Ceremonies this past Friday, what I find myself thinking about is all those hundreds of athletes who are at the Olympics who we will never see or read about.  The walked into the stadium smiling and waving their flags some from countries whose names were not at all familiar to me.  Many of them have trained just as long and just as hard as those who will stand on the podium and receive medals and flowers and the headlines in the news.

The focus over the next couple of weeks will be on the number of medals won by whom.  
This athlete vs. that athlete.
This country vs. that country.
Gold vs. silver vs. bronze.
And, for as much as I like the competition, I am coming to realize, that by focusing solely on the winners, we will completely miss the point.
The point is participation and not medal count.
Far more athletes, having trained their hardest and done their best, will lose rather than win.  They show up at the games smiling and waving their flags and knowing that, even with their best, they will be a lap behind or a length behind or never get out of the first heat.
The best part of the Olympics may not be the celebration of the winners, but the Opening and Closing Ceremonies where all of the athletes from all the different countries stand together smiling at the reality of just being there.

Maybe there is a lesson there for the rest of us.
We, too, focus so much on winning that second place or 10th place becomes losing.
And we forget that maybe…
What is the most important…
What is most needed.. 
Is that we show up and we do our best and we smile at the reality of just being where we are.