Don't Stop Believing

Hold on to that (well, you know…).

All,

This past Sunday, I shared with you Hoop Dreams, a story that underscores the importance of adopting the mindset that nothing says you can’t.

And today, I thought I’d share another story hidden inside that story, one that I’ve never told before.

Because it was that Christmas – that one when I was greeted with the abnormally large box, wrapped in a sheet and tied up with a bow under the tree, when I learned that the jolly man in the red suit was a myth.

Because it was that abnormally large box, which was concealed with that sheet and tucked suspiciously away, that had caught my eye in our basement weeks earlier.

To be clear, I didn’t peek, didn’t lift the sheet, but when I saw the same shape waiting for me on Christmas morning, it didn’t exactly take my inner Nancy Drew to put two and two together.

But the funny thing is that I have zero recollection of having the he’s-not-real conversation with my parents. Knowing my younger self, I likely announced that I was in on the jig with an air of authority at some point and that was that.

Yet here’s the thing adult me now understands:

That just because I stopped believing in Santa that morning didn’t mean I stopped believing in things I couldn’t see.

Quite the contrary, my notion of faith simply matured.

It turned inward, and with every bounce of a basketball, allowed me to believe in me.

As we’ve discussed before, you can call it what you want, but faith, hope, belief, trust, etc. are emotions, yet they’re actually most powerful when they’re viewed as verbs.

Because believing is like a muscle. And the more you flex it, the stronger it becomes.

So in this season of perpetual hope, my wish for you is that you find the strength to keep the faith.

To access the invincibility of a child who has not yet been jaded by the world.

Who is fueled by the truth that nothing says you can’t.

Here’s to you,