Living life like it's a basketball game.

Seven years ago my husband stopped me while walking out of a bar to watch the last few seconds of a basketball game. While I didn't mind the delay, it seemed ridiculous to watch when the game had clearly been decided. (I knew NOTHING about basketball)There were less than 3 seconds on the clock. Lakers were down by two. Kobe got the ball and nailed a three pointer to win the game. From that moment on I've been a basketball fan, specifically a Lakers fan. The team has struggled since then and it wasn't until last year that they became a championship team again, but I've enjoyed watching them through the ups and downs, changes in players, and the drama that only a team from Los Angeles could manufacture.

I love to watch the skill of the pros, I especially enjoy it when a game is close and there's no telling who's going to win. The obstacles faced, the challenges overcome, the drive and passion players bring to the game, get my heart racing.

Basketball is like life, condensed into 48 minutes, with breaks for commercials:

• It's important to find a good coach. Someone who's been where you want to be, is willing to guide you, and let you make your mistakes.
• You can't do it on your own. It' important to surround yourself with a good team.
• All that practicing done in private will determine how you play in public. The skill of your opponents makes you stronger.
• You'll never know the thrill of victory from sitting on the bench.
• It's not how many minutes you play that matters, it's what you do during those minutes that counts.
• Nothing will bring more focus to your game than the clock counting down to the final two minutes.

My desire to live 2010 as if I only have A Year To Live is to bring some of that "two minute" intensity to my own game. Anything I've read about the end of life says that people become more alive when they are given a terminal diagnosis than they ever were during their life prior. When time is running out, we get a chance to give it our all. I don't want to wait till the end of my life to know what that's like. And if I die unexpectedly, I'll never get that chance, so I'm taking myself through the drill now. And I've been fortunate to have excellent coaches so far.

Brugh Joy is a beautiful teacher with whom I had the pleasure of learning. Earlier this year he was diagnosed with a recurrence of pancreatic cancer. He had beat it 16 years earlier. Throughout his journey of treatments and further diagnosis he shared his experiences with his students. In one posting he wrote: "When you have death on your left shoulder... life is ever so amplified." He was living the "two minute intensity". A few weeks ago my friend Sugar got to do a meditation with him. She said, "he's never been so alive." Brugh passed on from this life to his next on December 23 at 7:30pm. But he lived, really lived, with intensity, integrity and an open heart. Like a pro!