Giants Victory

Ron Antonelli/New York Daily News

Part of healing and jumping back into the regular routine of life is finding something to care about.  It can be anything in the whole universe and you can change it anytime you want.

Yesterday, for me, it was the New York Giants and their 21-17 victory over the New England Patriots.

The Super Bowl party I attended was loose and friendly in the beginning of the game but it became a little more tense in the fourth quarter as the clock ticked away and the game looked like it would be decided by one or two key plays.  Giants fans were definitely in the minority at the party but I was committed.  I have written in previous posts about how my husband was a hard core fan and I truly thought the Giants were the better team.

It was a fantastic game, hard fought and well played.  In their second Super Bowl matchup in five seasons, Eli Manning and the Giants triumphed over Tom Brady and the Patriots, with Ahmad Bradshaw scoring a touchdown in the closing minute of the fourth quarter that pushed the Giants to a victory.

This might be a stretch but I do get the take away lesson of watching the determination of two teams playing against each other in a Super Bowl game and the laser focus of athletes.  Their competition can be infectious in a good way because they are digging down to find the best within themselves even when the odds may be against them.  For us, such energy can serve to jump start our desire to move forward and help us with the daily acts of coping and rebuilding while dealing with the unexpected changes in our lives.

The small decisions do build upon themselves and in turn, gives us hope and resilience.  Thanks, Eli!

Go Giants!

NBC Sports

I'd like to give a big shout out to the New York Giants who yesterday defeated the San Francisco 49ers and now are going to the Super Bowl!!!!!

I know my husband is up there with a big smile on his face, celebrating in his own heavenly way.  It's funny how many text messages I received while watching the game commenting about his supposed involvement with the Giants as though he could make the game go one way or the other.  But once the championship game went into overtime, even I was shouting for him to do something to help the Giants win.

We all have our own ways of staying connected to our loved ones who have died and I will always connect the Giants to my husband.  There are times when I turn a Giants football game on just to bring back those memories of him shouting at the television and giving his own commentary.  He was a hardcore fan who took each game personally and when they lost there was nothing right with the world.

That's why I know that he is very happy right now.   My husband would always say that the Giants never made it easy to be a fan and yesterday's game proved his point.  The score was tied 17-17 as they went into overtime.  You wanted to watch but you couldn't watch.  The Super Bowl was on the line.  Then Lawrence Tynes kicked a 31-yard field goal almost eight minutes into overtime to give the Giants a 20-17 victory over the San Francisco 49ers in the N.F.C. Championship game.

Go Blue!!!  Now we go to the Super Bowl to defeat the New England Patriots, a rematch of the Super Bowl four years ago.  As my husband would say, "May the best team win and you know what I mean!"