The Impossible

What does it mean to do the impossible?

Although doing the impossible sounds like a chunk, the reality of impossible is usually that it is a canvas draped over many, many smaller pieces. Some pieces are uncomplicated and straightforward while other pieces, though tiny are exquisite in their complexity. Even the flow of working through the pieces can result in its own set of knots.

Impossible can take the form of something as large and physical as free climbing El Capitan in Yosemite or it can be as small as a Celtic knot that barely reveals the mystery of its form even beneath a magnifying glass. Impossible can be something that is universally recognized such as landing on the moon, but more often than not impossible is what we tell ourselves cannot happen in our own lives through personal choice or because of outside forces we think are beyond our control.

The voices fill our heads:

I’m just not smart enough.

I don’t have time.

But I have to take care of _________.

It’s just not going to work.

I need the money too badly.

This is so ruined.

I can’t go back.

Even though hope is typically represented as a ray of light or a tiny boat on a stormy sea, I don’t know that I believe in hope as much as I believe in the human heart and its stubbornness. The human heart will continue to seek out its deepest desires through every impossibility. It’s what defines us.

How thin is the line between passion, desperation, insanity and brilliance?

How willing are we to admit to ourselves the reality of what we want in deep our hearts?

Do we even recognize it and, if so, are we ready to claim it?

This is the thread that holds our dreams together if it is not keeping us awake at night.

Claiming what you want deep in your heart is a liberation. It is also a wrecking ball. You might finally know what you want in the deepest part of you, but the moment your deepest desire snaps into focus is also the moment when everything else falls away. It can be a landslide.

Friends and family will roll their eyes and bounce into a shrill chorus about what’s good for you. Rocks and silt will cover over your outstretched arms as the challenge itself pushes you into an overwhelm of stress. You might even sacrifice some of your long term vision as you focus on short term execution. All of the little things you do to reach the impossible cover you in a slag heap of dead weight.

In the end, who knows if you will reach that impossible goal? This is the impossible, right? If that’s the case, why do we keep doing it? Why don’t stubborn hearts just explode in a bloody tangible mess? Fire in the hole.

The truth is, reaching for the impossible is not about an end goal at all. It’s about self-preservation and unburdening yourself from the chains of desire. Sometimes, the only way for that happen is to pursue something so utterly ridiculous that it won’t make sense to anyone but you. The pieces you work through on the way to the impossible are yours. They are your strength and your effort. Even if you feel them dragging you down, these pieces are what will eventually uncover you, just your friends will be there to help dig you out. The slag heap that covered you inverts itself into a mountain where you stand on ground made solid by all of your pounding and wailing. You are standing on top of your heart. It is still strong and it is still beating. That’s the impossible.