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How far is far, how high is high, possibility thinking.



How far is far; how high is high? We'll never know until we try.


The song from The California Special Olympics asks, "How far is
far; how high is high?" How far is far? As far as we want to go,
as far as our dreams take us. How high is high? As high as our
goals, as high as the mountains we climb. Many of the
participants of the Special Olympics were inspired by the
Serenity Prayer, which says, "God grant me the serenity to accept
the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I
can, and the wisdom to know the difference."


Although Serenity-Prayer-thinking has helped many to cope with
the struggles they face, for most of us, there seems to be too
much emphasis on 'accepting things' and not enough on 'the
courage to change' and the 'wisdom to know the difference.' While
some call themselves serene, others would describe them as
complacent. Sitting on one's butt and watching the world go by is
not a description of serenity. Serenity is not freedom from
struggle. Rather, it is the peace of heart we attain when we have
the courage to face our problems and the wisdom to change our
lives for the better.


We are not here to ACCEPT a fate imposed upon us. Rather, we are
here to CREATE our fate. True, we all have limitations, and there
are differences among us. Perhaps, God in his wisdom has given
one marble, another granite, and yet another sandstone to work
with. Yet, working with what we have, we are all capable of
sculpturing a masterpiece. That's what the participants of the
Special Olympics were doing, and that's what we should be doing.


To make our lives living masterpieces, we need to move beyond
acceptance, and even positive thinking, to the realm of
possibility thinking. We live in a sea frothing with unlimited
possibilities. When you consider, as Ray Bradbury has, that "we
are an impossibility in an impossible universe," it becomes clear
that anything is possible. Space travel and cracking the DNA code
are just two of the innumerable achievements of science that were
believed to be impossible. The history of science shows that
things are only impossible until they're not.


Possibility thinkers aren't concerned about what they are, but
what they can be. They are not concerned about the battles they
have to face, but with the possibilities they will uncover. Life
to them is easier than you may imagine. All one has to do is
accept the impossible, do without necessities, and put up with
the unbearable. Not much to ask for the exuberance and joy we get
with each miracle we do. Possibility thinking, then, is the
opposite of dead-end or blocked thinking. It is creative and
solution oriented. It moves us forward and frees us from the
traps that ensnare cynical, pessimistic, and negative thinkers.


If anything is possible, what can I look forward to happening in
my life? That depends on the choices I make and the actions I
take. Each day, no, each hour, each moment, we reach into the sea
of possibility and decide our fate by the decisions we make and
the path we choose to follow. At times, small decisions can have
profound effects. Take Helen, a British immigrant, for example.
She had a great job working in a University of Toronto research
lab. But faced with budget restraints, the university cut their
staff, and Helen, in her fifties, was suddenly out of work. The
only work she could find was in retail, which paid minimum wages.
She had a decision to make. Should she accept this low paying job
or continue searching for a better one, while draining her
savings in the process?


She decided to accept the job. After work, she would immediately
return home to look after her invalid mom. She had been doing so
for so long that any chance for romance and marriage eluded her.
But now she was no longer behind closed doors in a university
lab. Instead, she now had personal contact with customers,
hundreds of them each week. Who would have guessed that a
successful Japanese businessman would become her customer, her
friend, and her husband? Imagine, her mother now lives in her own
condominium, next door to Helen and has all her needs looked
after. Helen has been to Japan and Hawaii, and is now living a
life of almost unbearable happiness. All because she chose to
accept a minimum paying job. Helen's story is another example of
how what we interpret as a tragic event, such as the loss of a
job, can turn out to be a magnificent possibility.


Another friend, who is also an immigrant, would often tell me how
nice it would be IF he could return to his native country to
visit his relatives and friends and once again feel in his palms
the soil he farmed in his childhood with his dad. One day,
something happened to him. It was almost like he awakened from a
dream. He became a possibility thinker. Instead of telling me how
nice it would be IF he had enough money to travel, he suddenly
started to explain HOW he would save enough to go. He had
discovered many things that he could cut back on, which would
lead to considerable savings. He's already been back once and is
now preparing for his next visit. If we are to become possibility
thinkers, we have to stop saying IF and start telling HOW. It's
not a matter of looking for options as much as it is a matter of
looking for possibilities.


All my friend did was follow the advice of St. Francis of Assisi,
who said, "Start by doing what's necessary; then do what's
possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible." What we
often call 'impossible' is merely something we have yet to try.
How do we know what we can do, or not do, unless we try? By
looking for possibilities and trying new things, we break free
from our limitations and discover our own power. The following,
which was written in 1730 in a church in England, is worthwhile
pondering: "A vision without a task is but a dream. A task
without a vision is drudgery. A vision and a task is the hope of
the world."


The first step in discovering a new possibility is to search for
it. Be a seeker, for it is only in seeking that you will find.
The reward for seeking is discovery. Remember, as Sophocles (BC
495 ~ 406) taught , "What is unsought will go undetected." After
opening our eyes to new possibilities, we need to act. And after
doing so, we must persist until we reach our dream. Often, the
only difference between the 'possible' and the 'impossible' is
persistence. That is, what we call 'impossible' to achieve is
merely something we gave up on. The final obstacle, then, is the
belief that there is an obstacle.

Don't let those 'big' problems frighten you. Instead, look at
things through the eyes of Dale Turner, who wrote, "When Goliath
came against the Israelites, the soldiers all thought, 'He's so
big, we can never kill him.' But David looked at the same giant
and thought, 'He's so big, I can't miss him.'" Before we can slay
Goliath, we must come to the realization that it is POSSIBLE to
do so. From this moment on, let's start filling our lives with
possibilities; it's possible, you know!


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