I came across my knee pads in one of my suitcases yesterday.

Okay, first things first… I wear wore knee pads.  Not exactly something I am proud of but ever since my freshman year in college when the athletic trainers “highly recommended” them, I’ve worn them in games– in competitive basketball games.

When I came across the pads I was on the phone and was told to throw them away.  I didn’t know if I could.

People say they hang up their basketball shoes when they are done playing but, I’ll never do that.  I’ll always have a pair of basketball shoes that I can play in.  I’ll shoot around or play pick up for as long as my body will let me.  Then maybe even a few days after that.

So, it’s not the shoes I’m worried about.  The shoes are worn much more often than the knee pads.  My knees pads were for games; competitive… league… “let’s go”… real basketball games.

Games I’ll probably never play in again.  Throwing away my knee pads represented that for me.

At first I thought, ya, they need to be thrown away so I walked out to the trash can, all confident in tossing them in there.  In fact, I even held them above the opening before deciding to set them on the table next to it.  So there they were, a short swipe away from where they were going.

One day later I tossed them.  I think I just needed some time to reflect on what I was doing.  And I am totally okay with it.

Though I did leave them sitting, ever so nicely, on the very top of the trash, just in case….