Читать книгу Secondary Break - Marvin Williams - Страница 6

Introduction

Four seconds! Run it down. Set it up. Point got it. He’s taking his time, bringing it down and surveying the court. He’s covered tight, and they’re matched up perfectly. They’re both six feet one inch, they are both quick, and they both have a laser-like focus on what’s going on everywhere, even behind them. They are in man-to-man coverage and the point guard is covered. I break away to the top of the key, and he lobs it to me. Four seconds. That’s all. That is the only thing that is important. I can’t worry about my family and what they need. I can’t think about how my back hurt after that hard work out and practice last night. I can’t think about my need for breath as my chest heaves to gain the necessary air to live, or how nervous I am before this set began that made me feel like I wouldn’t have the strength to play. All I have are these four seconds!

Three seconds. I turn to my left with wide legs almost in a squat as I catch it. I’m at the top of the key, and because I have it, I see the bodies, shifting in my direction. They are moving away from me, and in a split second, I have to change their momentum to keep them from reaching me before I extend myself and release it. The shift in the momentum of my adversaries coming at me increases my need to breath, my need to focus, and my need to complete my task. Will I succeed? The seconds are ticking away.

Two seconds. I’m bringing my feet together before I spring into the air. All the force I generated, now climbing up my body into my arms that are holding it. The energy, now reaching the tips of my fingers. All other moments in my life have led to this moment. These two seconds are all that I have. As I send it propelling off the tips of my fingers into the air toward the rim, I have put it all out there. I have put all of my mind, body, and soul into its propulsion. I can’t do anymore. I have put all I have into this shot.

One second. It is now flying in the direction of the circle of my life! The circle is my enemy and my friend. It is my confidant and my adversary. The circle has brought me my greatest triumphs and my most difficult defeats. I trust the circle enough to know when it takes my side and when it will reject me with all of its force.

Swish! Today is my day. Today, this moment I lay bare, the vulnerable me, because all I gave comes back full circle.

We are fortunate. We who have found a place to exert our passions. We who intentionally accept the journey of life represented within our passions. Have you ever taken the time to look at that one thing you love and notice how it seems to mirror your life? In your passions, you have laughed and cried. You have prayed and you have sacrificed. In your passions, you have had to wait for its acceptance, and you have seen your innermost insecurities surface time and time again. In your passions, you have seen your kids also grow and develop even when they did or did not follow in your footsteps and share your same pathway. This is a story about how, in my passion, I have been able to see God, life, love, and a journey that lives on in the seeds I have planted along the way.

Every step of my life has mirrored that four-second play. That is what our lives consist of: seconds! We make split-second decisions that affect not only our lives, but the lives of everyone we touch. We decide if we want to eat healthy or not-so healthy. We decide in seconds if we are going to commit our lives to that one person or another. We decide if we are going to take a chance and do something that is scary, like trying something we have failed at before.

Seconds are all we have. Then we have to live with, or reconcile the consequences of those split-second decisions. None of us get to choose how we make it inside this human existence. However, there is a point in all our lives that we not only get to choose but, also get to decide, which lane we are going to run in.

From a very young age, I grew content with my split-second decision to choose to live instead of letting life choose for me. I didn’t always understand that was what I was doing. But when I look back at the choices I have made, some great and some very, very bad, I can see I was making split-second decision about the lane I would take for my life. Every step of the way, I chose my passions and did my best to pour the lessons, of what those split-second decisions to live my passions have taught me, into the lives I have been blessed to touch.