I've decided to change things up a bit. So far my blog has just been my reactions to what happens in the world of sports. I stretched it to where I was writing about things just to write about them, not really putting a lot of feeling in it. My best post came when something happened which really affected me (see "Rose's Thorn"). So I'm only going to write when I really care about something (go figure, right?), and I'm going to tie in some life lessons as well. I think it will be a lot better.
I'm back in Cedar City tonight. I drove down from Provo this evening. I was again reminded of how beautiful Utah is. I remember really appreciating it for the first time when I got home from my mission in Romania. I guess I had learned to better appreciate beauty while I was away serving in Romania. I saw some beautiful things there, but nothing compared to what I saw when I got home. All that time is was right in front of me, but I had to go halfway around the world to figure out how lucky I was to live in such an amazing place. The scenery was magnificent as I drove. Purple rain was a curtain veiling the red, sunset-lit horizon. Colorless silhouettes of cloud were lined with orange and yellow. I've tried before to take pictures of such scenes with my phone, but it never does it justice, so I've given up on that. Instead I tried to paint a picture with words. It seemed to work better.
The panorama eventually turned black. The dark sky was illuminated from time to time with brilliant flashes of lightning in the distance. As I got further south, closer to Cedar, the lightning got closer and brighter. Rain pelted the windshield. Coldplay provided a perfect soundtrack to the drive, and I kept myself awake by singing along (as is my custom). Life is good.
The real reason I was inspired to start blogging again after about a month off was a one minute video I saw the other day. Here it is.
I'm blown away by D-Rose. Everything he does seems to make me a bigger and bigger fan. The part of the video that hit me the most is the end when he says, "I'm all in." That's significant. To be great requires complete devotion to a goal. Derrick Rose hit a bump in the road - a big bump. If you think that deterred him from his desire to be the best basketball player he can possibly be, think again. He'll come back, and I fully believe that he will eventually be better than he ever has been up to this point. That will happen because he is completely focused and determined to make it happen. He's "all in," holding nothing back. So we should be "all in" with everything that we do. To only give half effort is to meander in the mass of mediocrity. Anything short of everything just isn't enough if we want to reach our potential.
I had a conversation with my roommate (one of my best friends) about this a while back. A lot of times we are scared to give 100%. Doing so leaves no excuses for the results. Giving less than our all, we can always say, "Oh, if I had tried harder I could've done it," or, "I could've won that game if such-and-such wouldn't have happened." We cripple ourselves. True satisfaction comes from giving our all, knowing we gave our all, and accepting the results as a just reward for the effort we put in. If the results aren't quite what we wanted, then we go to work and improve on the areas where we need a boost. Continual progress is the goal. Patience is required.
Patience will dispel fear, calm nerves, and soften the blow of disappointment. Patience will sustain the fire within. Derrick Rose is displaying amazing patience and humility as he works back in what has been diagnosed as an 8-12 month recovery process. I can't wait for him to get back. The Bulls need him. The NBA needs him. He is a great example of hard work and excellence that we can all learn from.
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