I believe in fate, that there is a reason for everything and that certain things are meant to be... maybe everything is. But I also believe in personal power and our individual ability to affect change around us and most importantly, within ourselves. So, in saying that... is anything really impossible?

I believe a lot is impossible. But I also believe that we have to try first in order to come to that conclusion. Impossible is a tricky word. There are some feats and activities that seem impossible that people manage to accomplish anyway. So when does something become impossible?

Many years ago I was talking to a friend who was having trouble with his girlfriend. He described the troubles they had and the ways they tried to fix them, but nothing seemed to work. They broke up, got back together and broke up again. He asked me if he had failed. In a flash of an instant, I came out with something I hadn't even thought about ... something spontaneous blurted out from deep within as I said to him, 'When something is impossible, failure is not an option.' He said, 'Wow,' but I was like, where the f*&% did that come from?

Now, I tend to be an optimist and always held the belief that whatever comes to me in life that I don't like, I can find a way to change it, go through it, go over it and somehow alter it. I've found though, that some things won't be altered so easily. We can try... and during the attempt we may consciously decide to change something in ourselves that changes the way we see the situation and helps us to have a new perspective on the one thing we were trying to change that won't budge. This brings about the image of a towering tree that has fallen in the woods, blocking a path. We first try to find a way over it, around it, under it, etc. Some might even try to move the tree. What if it's a really big tree? And what if there is no way over, around or under it... would we turn back? What if we absolutely did not want to turn back or were intent on moving forward on the path ... what then? Would we grab a vine, hurl it up onto a branch, swing ourselves up onto the branch, climb the tree to the other side of the fallen trunk, jump down and be on our way on the path as we originally intended? What if we didn't have the physical strength to do this or a handicap that prevented us from being able to... would we then have to resign ourselves to turning back? We might. But maybe we wouldn't have to go ALL the way back. Maybe on the way back we'd see another path we hadn't seen before or just ignored, thinking we knew the right one to take. The path of the second choice might actually turn out to be a better one for us ... but we won't know until we take it.

So, is anything truly impossible? Yes, of course. But more things are possible than we thought, if we really think about them. We just have to look at all the options, both outside of ourselves and inside ourselves. There may be other ways to get to a particular destination, and if there aren't, perhaps our destination will have to change.