"Life begins on Opening Day," baseball writer Tom Boswell once penned. In honor of this year's Opening Day Weekend, I'd like to share with you two anecdotes from baseball, including one of the from my own experience, that share a common learning...

First, baseball legend Joe DiMaggio and film star Marilyn Monroe were married in San Francisco on January 14th, 1954. Joe and Marilyn were of opposite temperaments; she hungered for the crowds and attention that he found distasteful.

While on their honeymoon in Tokyo, Marilyn took a side trip to entertain the troops in Korea. Upon her return to Tokyo, she told Joe of the exuberant crowds: "Joe," she said, "You never heard such cheering." Dispirited, Joe replied, "Yes, I have."

Second, several years ago I had a conversation with Jack Sanford, a pitcher for the Philadelphia Phillies, San Francisco Giants, and Kansas City Athletics. Jack was Rookie of the Year in 1957 with the Phillies and finished second to Don Drysdale in the Cy Young Award voting in 1962 with the Giants. He spoke of his experience pitching for the Giants against the New York Yankees in Game 7 of the 1962 World Series. Jack lost the game by inches when Yankees second baseman Bobby Richardson caught Willie McCovey's line drive with runners on second and third bases in the ninth inning. A foot or two in either direction and McCovey would have won the game and the series for Sanford and the Giants.

I asked Jack, "When you were on the mound in the ninth inning of the seventh game of the World Series, did you have any consciousness that you were living every little boy's dream?" Jack looked at me for a moment, his eyes moist with tears, and he answered, "I wish you were my wife."

Many men and women of accomplishment, like Joe DIMaggio and Jack Sanford, find it difficult when those closest to them neither understand nor appreciate their experiences and accomplishments. It can be prove lonesome. So...

What experience or accomplishment do you hold close to your breast that you wish you could fully celebrate with those closest to you?

How would their knowing help you feel more fully known?

What personal, compelling value might that experience or accomplishment represent?