Everything Was Possible

It's an interesting thought, isn't it? In this case, I actually borrowed it from the title of a book I just finished, Everything Was Possible by Ted Chapin, a chronicle of the journey of the Sondheim musical Follies from conception to Broadway. It was a remarkable book. (Let's face it, any book that consumes my attention when children and employment concerns are buzzing around me has to be pretty remarkable). In a life when I am sometimes satisfied just to get a few phone calls made and dinner on the table, I am amazed by the effort that goes into the shows that entertain us.
 
As I finished the book (I was actually sad to be done), I closed it, and thought about the title. How much could we do, if at every turn, we believed that everything was possible? How many things could we try on the way to getting it right? How creative might we be if we believed that with enough of ourselves invested, everything truly would be possible?
 
The past few years for me have been an education in a lot of things that seemed impossible, mixed in with a few reminders that things that seem far away actually are possible. It is easy, when faced with "no," to believe that nothing is possible. As I discovered in the book, Follies faced tremendous obstacles on its way to Broadway--from cast issues, to music yet to be written and rewritten, to a complicated set, to a hard to understand concept. Seven Tonys later, it became a show that made history.
 
As I think about Everything Was Possible, I think not about what could be, but what has been. Because I kept an open mind, there have been opportunities. Because I had people who supported me, I climbed from one level to the next, made transitions from one arena to the next. Because I didn't allow circumstances to get the best of me, I sometimes made the best of them.
 
Is everything possible? Perhaps not. But with a little belief, maybe for all of us, there is a moment in our lives when everything is possible. When we can be creators and experimenters, and developers of great things. And by believing that everything is possible, we can come away with a little masterpiece to show for it.