Greetings Champions,
I hope all is well. Its the end of April so I hope you are all getting ready for a good last 8 months of the year. Don't fret guys, that is still plenty of time for you to be all that you can be. Never forget, that I believe in you if nobody else does. So if you add me plus you, that always makes 2 people who believe :)
I'm usually not nearly as topical with my blog but a pretty major social-sports event happened recently. For the first time in US history, an active male athlete in the "Major 4" sports came out of the closet and revealed that he is gay. Southern California native Jason Collins will forever be known as a trailblazer with the path he is walking. This post is NOT about judging people who are straight or gay. Ultimately, that is YOUR business. For me, its about what path Jason was on until his destiny chose him.
The Collins twins were a big deal when I was in high school. You had two 6-11 brothers that played basketball at the ultra elite Harvard-Westlake Academy. Being 6-11 with a twin brother meant, in a simple basketball sense, that you always had someone just as big and strong as you to practice against. Wow! Coaches and scouts were salivating over them as 8th graders. All of us basketball heads played lots of travel team basketball growing up. For those unaware, in the summers kids from the same area but different high schools would get together and become a team and go around the country to play kids from other areas. We all played in front of the coaches and scouts. In reality it was just one big meat market. For us, it was fun to go test ourselves against other kids. So the day came one summer, my coach and I were walking to practice and he said "You better be ready, were playing against the Collins boys this weekend". I was excited! This was my chance to play against players who had a ton of scouts watching them which means they would be watching ME play against them. I didn't care about the 6 inches I was giving up. So the game came and I played pretty OK. I definitely scored a few times on the Collins twins. They definitely scored more than a few times on me and their team won by I think 8-10 points. Game is over, we all shake hands, good game..etc. The thought at that point was that the Collins twins were on their way to be NBA stars...
They kept playing. First at Stanford. They both made the NBA but they certainly aren't headed for the hall of fame. What none of us new at that time was that Destiny had actually chosen Jason Collins for something far more significant than the NBA hall of fame. He simply did what he enjoyed and kept playing ball. As he continued to play one day his heart, mind and destiny called. It told him that it is time for him to be all that he was. A basketball player..a black man..and a gay black man. This wasnt the destiny that all the pundits chose...but it is what destiny chose and he embraced it.
The moral..keep doing what you are doing because you NEVER know when your true destiny will choose you. I am sure he had some rough moments leading up to his decision but when his destiny came to fruition..it must have been a peaceful and great experience.
We all have choice guys. Im not saying everything is predestined. If you choose what you want to do from your heart, thats part way to your destiny. Just keep doing it...and your true destiny WILL choose you to complete the tapestry of your life..
Quote for the month
What counts is not the number of hours you put in, but how much you put in the hours.
Thanks for reading!
Ahmad
