A Wonderful Life! Coaching Blog

Whenever someone close to us or famous passes away, we are reminded of how precious this gift called life can be. We are reminded that we are on borrowed time and to cherish every moment. Michael Joseph Jackson, God bless his soul, lived August 29, 1958  to June 25, 2009. His time here on earth, was a gift to not only his family and friends, but to an entire generation many generations. His life was a gift to the history of music…to our own personal histories.

Most of us can recall a memory linked to at least one Michael Jackson song. We remember watching the full length Thriller video and imitating the zombies dance routine; loving how he glided across the lit-up dance floor in Billie Jean; feeling awestruck by little Michael and his brothers while he showed why he was the lead singer; learning the new dance step he introduced in Remember the Time; or countless other songs and memories. Even my 10 year old daughter was moved by his life and music, and he hadn’t produced a record since she was 2.

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I’m one of those people who likes to reiterate what I say. I drive a point home when I believe that there’s a message attached for us to learn from. I view life’s journey as a series of lessons we are learning in accordance to our specific purpose. We must learn the lessons that will enable and strengthen us to do what it is we are here to do in our lifetime. Just as students in a class have a teacher, a book has an author, a TV show has an MC, I believe that I’m here to pass along a message. That I’m a messenger of sorts. I think my message is tied to my experiences, as I see them. A bunch of lessons along a path…toward my destiny.

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My daughter, BreAzia, turned 10 this spring. This birthday was a major milestone, not just for her, for me as well. Having a daughter with a double-digit age, made me take stock of the time that’s passed. I realized that I had been a mother and a professional basketball player for a decade. I’ve had the good fortune to play in the WNBA in the Summer for 10 seasons and overseas in 5 different countries for 9. So I’ve played 19 professional seasons of basketball.

I remember back when I was still at Stanford my senior year, and I had just participated in the NCAA tournament and made history. Incidentally, it’s not the type of history you’d want to make.  We were hosting that round of the playoffs so it was a home game to start my last NCAA tournament. In the past three tournament appearances we made it to the Final Four. This year was our season to win it all. We were the #1 seed and Harvard was the #16. We lost to them. Did you hear me? We made history losing to Harvard. The first time in NCAA history that a #1 seed lost to a 16. But maybe I should back-up a second here, I should’ve prefaced my story with an important fact that made this piece of history possible.  READ MORE