Hasta La Gadget!

In the 2016 NBA Finals, LeBron James has been told he’s a baby. He’s been mocked for having his feelings hurt. He’s been booed and jeered and laughed at by the Golden State Warriors crowd.

But in Game 6, it was James who got the last laugh. With his Cleveland Cavaliers blowing by the Warriors late in Thursday’s fourth period, James tracked and then packed Steph Curry, swatting his lefty layup attempt out of reach.

Then after the play, LeBron stopped in his tracks to soak it all in — and to send a few choice words the Warriors star’s way. 

It was LeBron’s night to gloat. With another historic performance from its do-it-all small forward, Cleveland just made history, evening up the series at three games apiece with a 115-101 win on Thursday evening.

On to an unlikely, unexpected Game 7 we go.

Even after James’ block, with the game effectively sealed, play devolved further. Curry drew his sixth and final foul on a subsequent Cleveland possession, and began to argue vehemently.   

Within moments, he tossed his mouthguard into the stands and then he himself was tossed from the sidelines, sent back to the locker room — his first-ever career ejection. 

But the story of the night was James, who punched in his second consecutive 41-point outing. Finishing with a 59 percent shooting clip, James also tallied 11 dimes, eight boards, four steals and three blocks, showing off his power both in the paint and on the perimeter all night long. 

The Cavaliers led from tipoff to final buzzer, with James’ play complimented by a dynamic performance from big man Tristan Thompson, whose activity in the middle, effort on the glass and hustle in transition exposed Golden State’s undersized frontline. Thompson had a double-double notched by halftime, and didn’t miss a field goal all game, pocketing a +32 +/- rating.

In fact, three of the evening’s top plays came courtesy of Cavaliers players’ vision and Thompson’s off-ball movement. As James, J.R. Smith and James again rewarded their center for his work down low.

And while the Cavs began the game with an offensive onslaught, the Warriors appeared out of sync and rusty. The league’s most dynamic club put up just 11 points in the first quarter, its lowest of the year — only managing to score one more field in that spell (five) than James.

Excepting LeBron’s fourth quarter stuffing of Steph, the most emphatic moment of the night came with a little over four minutes left in the third. An errant pass from Curry ended up in the hands of Kyrie Irving, who sent it ahead to J.R. Smith.

Smith, who’s not known for his passing, then looped up and over a no-look lob to a soaring LeBron, who slammed home the oop for a 19-point lead.

Despite his foul trouble, Curry led the way for the Warriors, totaling 30 points on 8-of-20 shooting. Fellow Splash Brother Klay Thompson struggled for the first two and a half quarters, before igniting a 10-run late in the third to bring the Warriors within eight.

Ultimately, however, the power of James was too much. The Warriors were held off, with tempers flying, emotions spiking and the Quicken Loans Arena crowd roaring.

And now, it all comes down to 48 minutes in Oakland on Sunday.

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In the wake of the shootings in Orlando, Florida last weekend, many of us were stunned at the magnitude of violence that occurred in a place where people were gathered to have fun dancing and hanging with friends. Many of us wondered how someone could be so deliberately heinous and discriminatory to attack members of the LGBT community without provocation.

While most people have been very sympathetic and compassionate toward the victims of the nightclub shooting, there are a few sad souls who have expressed satisfaction with the deaths of the 49 innocent people believing because of their lifestyle, they got what they deserved! How cruel.

Members of the LGBT community are entitled the same unalienable rights as everyone else–life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. They have a right to live how they choose to live and to love who they choose to love without fear of judgment or the threat of death. In fact, no one should have to live in fear because of who they are whether they were born that way or choose to be a particular way; it doesn’t matter.

“I don’t know how I feel about the shooting because hate is hate. I don’t think it is just a gay thing, but a hate thing,” said Sylvia McAfee of Atlanta and a member of the LGBT community.

In addition, to being shocked and outraged at the deaths of 49 people in one night, what disturbed me just as much was hearing those who were spared lament over the fact that Pulse nightclub was the one place where members of their community could go and feel safe and free to be themselves. Now that is gone. Surely, an unprovoked attack like this has a disturbing effect on the LGBT community just law enforcement often over the top attacks on Black men disturbs the Black community.

Everyone is subject to some biases and prejudices that we may not be proud of, but it doesn’t give us a pass to be violent or hateful. What right did the shooter have to snuff out lives because he had a chip on his shoulder? What right did he have to leave so many loved ones in pain over losing their family or friends in his vicious attack? None!

“It’s an unfortunate situation but you can’t stop living your life. I don’t think this will set our community back, but will strengthen it instead. The LGBT community is a resilient group of people,” McAfee added.

Hence, it matters not if you agree with the lifestyles of LGBT community, we all have a duty to be advocates for what is right and what is fair. We have a duty to help another human being who needs help and to treat that person with decency and respect. It doesn’t cost you a thing to treat someone the way you want to be treated. After all, we all bleed red.

Angela Greene is the author of Unnecessary Roughness-The Story of a Mother’s Fight for Justice coming in 2016. She is also an advocacy expert and media professional. She is the founder of, Change Agents Advocacy Group, a social justice advocacy group that seeks to educate and empower people about social injustices. They specialize in helping clients with conflict resolutions.

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It wasn’t your average Joy ride. It felt more like a roller coaster, strapped in, with G forces on the turns and dives that would snap your head back.

We got up at 4:30 am and as I sat next to my 18 year old son in the car I felt like I was bringing a soldier to war.

He was quiet and determined as we arrived at the hospital and I felt an overwhelming weight on my shoulders as they prepped him for brain surgery. I could do nothing to help him. He was truly a soldier-calm, stoic, brave and true to who he is-kind and courageous.

He was having a large, dangerous brain tumour removed. It wasn’t a random one. He bore not only his own worries but the weight of the family history. He’d lost his grandmother well before his birth, to the same kind of tumour and he has an uncle who has suffered greatly from many of the same surgeries and been left with physical challenges because of these same tumours. He knew not everyone comes out ok and not everyone makes it.

As we waited for him to be rolled into the surgical suite he asked me to take a picture of his ‘virgin’ head, scar free and whole, knowing it would never be the same and it would bear the mark of his suffering and ultimately his healing.

A beautiful older male nurse asked if we had any questions and looked at his father and I with such intensity, he said “Don’t worry, we will take good care of your boy” his gaze gave me strength and I felt a divine brush with his reassuring words.

We said ‘goodbye’ to our beloved boy, our man child, our deeply courageous soldier.

Where’s the joy in this ride?

It is there, colouring the darkness, with brief bright patches. We were surrounded by loved ones that came from all over to help us pass the time as the surgery took place. Like doulas they helped us in what otherwise would have been a slow anguishing journey. It takes courage to walk alongside those who suffer, yet they showed up, drove from hours away to stand alongside us in our angst and to silently stand alongside our boy.

There was joy. A quiet stream of joy knowing we were not alone, we were loved and we were held in a divine grace that whispers alongside us in the most troubled times.

The nurse came down every 90 minutes after peeking in on the surgery and to tell us that he was doing ok. My baby with his head cracked open and more vulnerable than most have ever been.

There was hint of Joy.

When the surgeon called to say he was doing well; might have some trouble with balance and walking, but he was ‘well’.

There was Joy.

When we got to see him and his suffering was more than I could bear and watching the nurse doing whatever we asked to ease his pain.

There was Joy.

Not the kind of joy that makes you jump up and down, like you won the lottery, but a deep gratitude for small mercies.

When after a brutal night of inadequate pain meds, the medical team stepped in to alleviate his pain and he slept, the nurse clapped her hands and jumped up and down-for Joy.

When he got up and walked, albeit wobbly 2 days after the surgery.

There was Joy.

Joy is different than happiness although they are closely related. Joy contains an aspect of happiness, but it is deeper rooted, rooted in the good earthy, visceral goodness that is available to all of us despite tragedy and pain.

It’s the hand on your shoulder that says I’m here with you. It’s the fruit that your friend brings and when you put it in your mouth you feel a burst of delight. It doesn’t fix things or change the fact that you ate it as you held your hospitalized loved ones hand, but it is the juice that keeps us moving on the hardest of days and we miss out on it if we aren’t present to its fleeting touch.

There was joy watching him navigate stairs and doing it without the help of a cane that was needed earlier. There is pain in healing and so much joy in the little miracles along the way.

One year has passed, since this ride began, since the day that scarred not only him, but all of us in a way. There has been Joy on this roller coasting ride that was more profoundly and deeply felt than I’ve never known. I would not ask for suffering like that again, but if I do, I trust that Joy will be there to give me enough of its elixir to keep moving and trusting, even on the most difficult of days.

Joy is not the absence of pain-there will always be pain and stress. Joy becomes more readily available when we lean into the pain, feeling all that we feel. Pain, when we wrestle with it and feel all that it brings, burrows valleys in our heart; deep crevices that are capable of producing wellsprings of joy. When we avoid or numb out pain we also numb out the space for the emotions we long for. In a way pain can serve us as it carves out more room for Joy.

Joy-It’s not here just for me or for a fortunate few. It’s here for you too. The world is hungry for more of it and it is available for all of us. It may be lingering in the corners of our lives but its there. It requires presence and gratitude to lock it in more deeply.

Joy may be all we have to inject the wee bit of strength we need to keep moving forward. My wish for you today and everyday is that you would see it, feel it and know it and that somehow the miracle of Joy would light your path on the darkest of days.

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Since my Dad passed on a few years ago I don’t shop for Father’s Day anymore. But every time I go to my local mall, I’m struck by the number of dads pushing strollers or holding their kids’ hands as families troll for merchandise.

When I was a kid, that scene would have been unheard of. Dads worked for pay, moms tended children (even if they also had jobs),and the two worlds rarely intersected except at the dinner table. To paraphrase the Virginia Slims marketing slogan of the ’60s, we’ve come a long way with babies.

Still, our cultural norms are stuck in the past. We remain loyal to the assumption of maternal ownership of children. Stroller-pushing dads notwithstanding, men still get short shrift from the workplace and society in general when it comes to sharing the joys and burdens of raising kids.

All this is not to say new mothers have it made. While new parents in every other industrialized country on the planet get a paid break, usually mandated by law, the vast majority of employers in the good ol’ U S of A offer zero paid leave for moms or dads. We have no national policy or law mandating paid leave for new parents. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, a measly 12% of employees in the United States have access to paid leave for any care of family members, including newborns and adopted children.

Precious few employers offer time off with pay to new moms, and of the 17% that do grant dads the same benefit it’s almost always for less time. Companies offering fully paid maternity and paternity leave on Working Mother Magazine’s 100 Best list give an average of 9 weeks to moms — but only 3 weeks to dads.

We know it takes women a couple of weeks to recover physically from childbirth, so when paid leave is offered, some difference is expected. But companies need to give men a better break. Moms can use the help, and dads need time with the new kid too.

Attempts to get men to take more responsibility for children have always been at the core of the struggle for equal rights for women, in and out of the home. But even as individual families grow more egalitarian, the effort most often ends at the workplace door. We cannot urge men to spend more time with their children without recognizing that both our corporate system and our culture virtually guarantee the opposite outcome for too many families.

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“To handle yourself, use your head; to handle others, use your heart.” – Eleanor Roosevelt

You know the saying, “Success in business is all about making connections.” Old school thinking would relate that to the “who you know” scenario, but in feminine leadership it’s so much deeper.

My friend and business strategist, Lou D’alo, describes it as “doing business at the speed of love.” Lou and I sat one afternoon on his wooden high-deck with the sun directly above and chatted about how connections are made. With tea in hand, birds chirping in the background and the wind lightly blowing through the beautiful Toronto landscape, we examined how we’ve both arrived at this point in time in our careers with the success and incredible networks we both cherish. Over laughter and fond memories, we identified that all of the truly successfully entrepreneurs in our networks are very connected.

How have these entrepreneurs developed such incredible networks?

It’s simple. Go on a quest to deeply learn about people – what are their values, what do they care about, and what are they up to in the world. I’ve found that slowing down to ‘read the story’ of each person I connect with provides me with the gift of an opportunity to identify where we align with values, outlook, and objectives. With this information, I have the clarity needed to offer my support utilizing my strengths and superpowers.

Adopt A Giving And Serving Attitude

Building a strong network is about giving first.

Andrew Sobel, author of Power Relationships, believes that if you want to connect with someone you should find a way to help that person.

Adam Grant’s book Give and Take offers some science to show that the most successful people have learned the art of giving as well as how to set healthy boundaries around their generosity when necessary.

“At the end of the day people won’t remember what you said or did, they will remember how you made them feel.” This quote by Maya Angelou really sums it up. People want to feel like you really care, like you’ve got their back, like you want to help them.

A recent article on Inc.com published by Jeff Haden explains that people who build extraordinary business relationships are open enough to roll up their sleeves and step in to help solve a specific problem, “Not because they want to build a better relationship, although that is certainly the result, but simply because they care.”

What happens after people feel supported? They want to understand what makes you tick and what’s important to you. After I spend the time to know and support those in my network, I find that most often what follows is collaboration, celebration, gratitude and/or reciprocation. When you take time to slow down and do business at the speed of love you create powerful connections who in turn have your back.

In 2013 I came across Claudia Chan’s SHE Summit, an annual women’s empowerment conference in New York City. After a bit of research, it was clear that Claudia’s mission is closely aligned with my own and I wanted to support her efforts. During this time, I was the co-founding CEO of the national chocolate company, NibMor, which provided me with the opportunity to reach out to Claudia and sponsor her event by featuring our chocolate. I took it a step further, and reached out to Claudia about 3 weeks before the event to ask her what her biggest challenges were in getting everything finalized for the conference. She told me that her biggest challenge was sourcing other food vendors for the marketplace as sponsors. Wanting to support her deeply, I made the necessary calls to my network and was able to garner interest.

Claudia and I soon became good friends. In fact, fast forward a few years and Claudia reached out to invite me as her guest on a trip to Toronto where she was being featured as a keynote speaker. This event was a pivotal moment in my life. I’ve met some of my closest friends and colleagues as a result of the Toronto SociaLight event led by Theresa Laurico. Through the connections I met at this event, I was fortunate enough to be introduced to Lou D’alo, my friend mentioned at the beginning of this article.

The incredible human beings I’ve connected with and the deals I’ve closed as a result of adopting a giving spirit in my relationship with Claudia has been a 10x return. Yet, I expected nothing.

“You can have everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want,” says author and motivational speaker Zig Ziglar.

Love Yourself

Building a strong connection with others begins with accepting and valuing all the unique gifts that we each bring to the world–and believing that we are meant to share them. Accepting the beauty of ourselves lets others see who we really are, which makes them more ready to trust and receive what we have to offer. The act of loving ourselves enables us to bravely reach out and positively impact life after life after life.

Self-love and an attitude of service creates deep, long-lasting connections that positively impact the world–and pull in an army of people who will have your back! This is feminine leadership; this is doing business at the speed of love.

One More Woman

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