Spectrum Connection: July 2021
From the desk of Dave Smalley
HOPE!
Hope abounds lately, as our world changes with a return to what we know. Hope is a wonderful thing, wouldn’t you agree? When I think about hoping for something, I feel my eyes lift up and my hands come together. What is your reaction when you think about hope?
Hope is many things to many people, and different to everyone as well. To define hope, I believe it is personal to each situation. In the dictionary, as a noun, hope is a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen. As a verb, hope is to want something to happen, or be the case. But hope is so much more than just a noun or a verb. Hope is a word that we generally use in an uplifting sort of way.
I have been thinking about the various levels or degrees, if you will, of hope and our daily lives. We all hope. At the base line of hope are our casual hopes: we hope it doesn’t rain, we hope traffic isn’t too bad, or we hope to not miss a favorite TV show. Little hopes that, if they come to fruition, make us happy, but if not, no big deal.
We also all hope bigger, like when we hope to be chosen for a new job, or win a contract. We might hope that someone we love, loves us back, or hope for a raise that will allow us to buy a new house. These are clearly bigger hopes with bigger stakes, and if they come to be, we are really happy, but if not, we will pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and go at it again.
Then, we hope even bigger. People talk about their hopes and dreams, with a wanderlust in their eyes. Our hopes and dreams for our children and families are certainly a notch up on the ‘hope spectrum’. Our hopes for a happy life, love, laughter. At this level, our hope is not something we can touch, but something we feel. Hope is the fire-starter in our heart and soul. With hope, we have a direction, a goal, and that allows us to muster our resources towards the focus of our hope. Without hope, we don’t have focus or a direction starter.
Finally, we hope LARGE. This is the hope for change and a better life, hope for health and healing, hope for strength and, at times, forgiveness. When we hope large, we have to hope with ALL of our heart and all of our faith. Large hopes are just too much for us to do the heavy lifting by ourselves. Large hopes need the help of large faith. However, too often we are late to the starting line on that one, by waiting and calling upon faith in the moment we need it. We must gather it and bank it in advance. The same is true on the backside, that too often we walk away after the fact, without proper Grace of the outcome we hoped for.
We are all hopeful people. We must prepare for the success of our hope by banking the preparedness of faith and strength today. Prepare to take that winning walk with hope and faith you bank every day.
Large hopes come to us all, at one time or another. Should you find yourself in a place where you have large hopes, know you are supported by great friends. If your large hopes are for you, or your families health and healing, know you do not walk alone. Keep hoping, keep preparing, and keep banking on the future.
With Respect,
~ Dave
From the desk of Melanie
ON SHARKS AND PEOPLE
One man sat at a stop light. The woman in front of him was going through papers on the seat of her car, and when the light changed to green she didn’t go. A green light is not a suggestion, you know, it is more of a commandment. But she didn’t notice.
When the light turned red again, she still had not moved. The man in the car behind her now started screaming epithets and beating on his steering wheel.
A policeman tapped on his windshield. “You can’t arrest me for hollering in my car,” the man said. The cop asked for his license and registration, returned to his car, talked on the radio for a while and finally handed the papers back. The driver protested, “I knew you couldn’t cite me for yelling in my own car!”
The officer replied, “I didn’t want to cite you for shouting in your car. But I was behind you at the light and saw you screaming and beating your steering wheel. I said to myself, ‘That guy is out of control. He’s going to hurt someone.’ Then I noticed your ‘Love Is a Choice’ and ‘Give Peace a Chance’ bumper stickers and I was sure you stole the car.”
What the signs on his vehicle said about him and the way he actually behaved looked like, well, two different people. But let’s not be too critical. Are we always the people we want to be? I believe in love and justice, forgiveness and second chances and generosity – but I don’t always live up to the ideals I profess.
It helps me to think of sharks. We’re told that some kinds of sharks can’t breathe unless they swim. They get oxygen from the movement of the sea over their gills, and they can only make this happen by constantly moving through the water. In other words, they must keep moving forward to live.
Likewise, humans who want to live well must also keep moving forward. Forward toward the people we want to be. Forward toward our goals and ideals. Change is almost always incremental – a little bit each day. But we must keep moving forward.
As author Marianne Williamson says, “There is no passion to be found playing small – in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living.” But I find great passion in stretching a little farther than I think I can. I hang on to the belief that it is better to reach too far and fall short than to settle for mediocrity and succeed.
Yes, I don’t always give peace a chance and I don’t always choose love first. And more often than I care to admit, the person I am today doesn’t wholly resemble the one I hope to be tomorrow. But all of that is all right, so long as I keep moving forward, little by little, every day.
Life demands that sharks and people keep moving forward. — Steve Goodier
~ Melanie
Arizona Catering provided backstage catering for UFC 263 at Gila River Arena in Glendale, AZ, and also a Celebration of Life event for 350 guests at the Glendale Civic Center in Glendale, AZ in June.
Also, introducing the newest Executive Chef for Arizona Catering, Julio Perez!
FROM THE CORNER OF:
Hello and welcome to the USSSA SPACE COAST COMPLEX in Melbourne, Florida! It’s Jay and Julie here stopping in to say a big hello to everyone!! We are so glad to see everyone getting things back on track and getting back to it!
We have been very fortunate here in Florida at our little 85-acre baseball complex! We will be completing our 1st year of operation as of this July 2nd!! We are so excited to get year number two under way and will certainly do this in a B I G F A S H I O N! Excitingly, we will be hosting just over 1,000 baseball, softball, and fast pitch teams this summer! We will have national teams visiting, teams that have had to qualify, plus various other tournament formats of play joining us here! Beginning June 23rd, we will be open for 62 days straight, full of tournament play! Our typical day has the first game starting at 8:00 am with last games beginning by 9:00 pm, if there have been no weather or other delays of course!
These teams consist of groups and players from 7-8 years old all the way to high school seniors! There will be Invitational tournaments where National teams must qualify, State and Regional World Series and other various tournament formats rounding out the events for the summer!
We will host about five opening day ceremonies, which will be about 6,000 athletes, parents and coaches per event all gathering and parading in our Space Coast Complex with 9,000 stadium seats for special tournament kick off events! We will have a busy 2 – 3 hours of sales during this time and looking forward to all that it entails!
Our 1st year has been very successful, and we have been very fortunate with a wonderful staff, managers, and partners to work with. The summer will certainly have plenty of activity and we are all up for the challenges of hosting, feeding and entertaining such crowds, kids and parents!
I am proud to report we are still operating with our original management staff and over 65% of our original hourly employees! Our management team consists of Chef Nic Rogers, Operations Manager Kelly Lenau-Jess, and of course Julie Jung, my boss!! It’s hard to believe one year has already gone by and thanks again to everyone back in Houston at both the warehouse and home office for all the assistance in getting us up and online! It seems like just yesterday we were here with the opening team figuring things out.
I love to do this on an annual basis, so here are some interesting numbers of usage for our first-year operating:
Beer is 44,575 units—that’s over 1,850 cases of beer Seltzers are 7,725 units – that’s over 320 cases
Water topped out at 47,900 units which is just under 2,000 cases Gatorade was 31,500 items which is over 1,300 cases
Candy was over 20,475 pieces Hot dogs were over 18,000 Burgers just under 17,500 sold
And Pretzels rounded things out at just over 10,500 sold
So now we have some targets to aim for as we begin year two here in Florida; and everything is pointing towards another stellar year! Cheers again to everyone, congrats to “getting back on the road” and hope to see everyone again real soon.
~ Jay and Julie
We are so excited to welcome each of you back. We know your life may have changed tremendously since March 2020 and with all the excitement to return, comes some anxiety as well. We want to let you know that this is completely normal and provide you with a few tips to help cope with getting back into the swing of things.
First things first, take everything one day at a time. Thinking about a million and one things that do not have any effect on your today will cause you more stress than needed. Be gentle and patient with yourself. You’re doing the best that you can!
Take deep breaths. Inhale and exhale slowly focusing on your breaths and not on what’s going on around you.
Welcome humor. A good laugh goes a long way!
Get enough sleep. Resting is an essential key in being your best and doing your best. You must allow your body the
time that it needs to recuperate and or adjust.
Limit Alcohol or caffeine. This can aggravate your anxiety and trigger panic attacks. Try to limit your intake anytime
you’re feeling anxious.
Accept that you cannot control everything. Doing this will help to alleviate some of your anxiety or stress. Focus on what you can do and not the things that you cannot do. Accept that the things that are out of your control are just that, out of your control.
Maintain a positive attitude. Replace negative thoughts with positive ones. Anytime you feel negativity creeping in, counter it with a positive thought or affirmation.
Talk to someone. We have all been forced to deal with change once the pandemic started. Know that you are not
alone. Talking with your peers, family or coworkers may help you to see just that. And who knows, they may have a
suggestion for something they’re doing to maintain staying calm that just may work for you, but you will never know
until you ask. 🙂
Fact Check your thoughts. Sometimes we can be our worst enemy and overthink things. When this happens, it’s up to us to slow our thoughts down and look at the bigger picture. Combat your worries by thinking about how realistic they are for you. Get into the habit of rethinking your fears to help train your brain to produce a rational way to deal with your anxious thoughts. When you feel your brain going down negativity lane, turn it around to positive boulevard by switching your way of thinking.
Exercise Daily. Take time to help yourself feel good and maintain your health. I always say, my best days are started with a prayer and a workout.
Always do your best and appreciate yourself for doing just that! Everything may not be perfect or flow exactly how
you wanted it to, but it’s ok. You tried. You gave it your all. And that’s all that anyone can ask.
We are excited and looking forward to a positive and strong return! Please reach out to the People Department if you need anything at all. We are here for you and happy to help in any way that we can! Always remember that we are a
team and there is no “I” in team, we are in this together! That’s the beauty of Spectrum; regardless of your
department or job title, we are all here to help each other to be our best!
