Recently a kinda weird thing has been happening. I’ve noticed that there are a few words that follow me around like little puppy dogs. They’ve been tagging along for a few months now. They just keep on popping up in my thoughts, my conversations, even dreams sometimes.
One of the words is possibility.
I’m not much of a words person – I prefer images. So I took possibility and made an image out of it in my journal.
Things I’ve learned are possible, as a result of this little exercise:
- turning a puppy-dog word into an image
- working with something I usually stay away from (in this case, words)
- making a picture in 25 minutes
Things I believe are possible:
- learning how to scan so my images don’t have blurry spots
- learning how to use watercolor, if I work at it
- making another drawing today
- turning the other words into images too
COMMENTS: We’re at the start of a new week and a new month.
What’s possible?
(If you don’t want to answer that question, I’d love to know: do you have any puppy-dog words?)
nifty (of course), yikes, yay . . . will post more as they occur to me
Oh dear, the only answer I can come up with to the “what’s possible?” question right now is: DOOM. Spending the night watching the election results coming out (and being appalled by those results) has clearly messed with my perspective on what’s possible. :/
I’ll (hopefully) get over it and start seeing possibility again some time soon… or when we’ll wake up from that collective nightmare four years from now.
Ah Josiane, I am sorry to hear about the nightmarish doom. I do hope that today looks a little less doom-ified. If not, maybe you could found an island colony somewhere and call it Josianeland? I would come visit. And maybe take up residence, who knows.
Kinsey, it looks like Canada could use a little bit more yay and nifty, and a little less yikes.
Clearly, the further north you go, the more morose you get. If you want more proof, just compare Swedes/Finns/Norse (and even Nederlanders) with Italians!
So here’s a serious post: I think that in reality, very few things are truly impossible in all dimensions. Try thinking about “what’s possible” from the other direction, exploring “what’s actually impossible” and asking “why I cannot do it”.
Doing that which you know you can do, deep down, may be hard, but the bigger challenge is seeing how to do that which you think you can’t do. Most everything is possible, if you can see the path and are willing to take it. Seeing the path, though, usually is the rub. Sometimes you just have to figure it out, bear down, and do what’s necessary. Other times, you have to make a new path, find a liberating, unconventional approach (such as, a brilliant insight, changing how you see things by making words into images). Even something like leaping to the top of a building, which is physically impossible no matter how hard you practice, becomes possible if you jump in virtual space, in your mind’s eye. I’m not besotted by the pious, pompous platitudes – Alliteration! Yay! (hey, there’s one of my puppy words!) – of the power of positive thinkers, but getting “impossible” to become “possible” mostly requires being creative, throwing off chains imposed by your preconceptions, attitudes and state of mind. In other words, artful play.
One impossibility, which I am wrestling with unfortunately, is that it isn’t possible to make yourself love someone who you truly don’t, it isn’t possible to make someone love you who truly doesn’t. The trick, I suppose, is in the “truly” part – how can you tell when that actually is the case, given that we pretend, lie to ourselves even, in this regard? How can you tell if the other person actually does not love you or is it just shy reticense, fearfulness or lack of courage?
Josiane — teasing aside, I’m sympathetic. I had the same reaction (fearful of impending DOOM + aghast at the incredible stupidity and blindness of the electorate) when GWBush was elected. The main difference between us is that I suffered that indignity twice! At least I have the self satisfaction of being able to say, smugly, “I told you so.”
Kinsey: Thanks for the sympathy. I was about to say more in response to your comment (the situation in Quebec is more complicated than it may seem to be to an outsider), but I’d rather not hijack Sarah’s blog with tales of our political woes. Let’s simply get back to artful play!
Your word is so sparkly and shiny.
I love thinking about what’s possible. Sometimes the possibilities just pile up all around me.
They are like puppy-dogs – they want to go out for a walk.
Possibility is one of my puppy-dog words right now! I adore you for making this drawing. Now, whenever I think about possibility, I see your stars…
I think that one of the most important things I’m learning about pondering “what’s possible?” is that we can pretty much expect to bump right into our blocks and monsters and any other personal obstacles we might have. And looking at the places where we’re stuck can be painful.
To me, acknowledging that pain is essential to self-kindness, and essential to the creative process. It’s a big part of what this blog is all about.
@Josiane, thanks for getting us all back on track! Bring on the art and play.
@Jenny, I like the idea of taking your possibilities out for a walk. Maybe we could all take our possibilities for a walk a couple times a day.
@Julie, hooray, we have a puppy-dog word in common! And when I read your comment I thought, “My stars!”
I suppose to consider something as being possible we have to first believe it to be so: Lots of times we have (unconscious) beliefs that prevent us from even considering certain possibilities that would be possible if we did not hold that particular belief. In other words, it is a personal mental barrier rather than a physical impossibility. Um, does that make sense?
Here is an example in the physical world of what I am talking about. I recently was on crutches/wheechair for a broken foot and was not allowed to touch my foot to the floor. I had a shoulder injury which made using the crutches clumsy and painful and totally messed up my balance. We live on the second floor of our building so if I went out, I would crawl back up the stairs as it was easier and felt safer than onefoot/crutching.
At the top, I had to stand up on one foot, turn myself around, and sit in the chair or else stand up and hop forward on one foot to get the crutches going. The hand rail did not reach to the top of the stairs, so there was nothing to hold onto. This was incredibly scary because my balance sucked and the stairs were steep and I am no spring chicken let alone a tiny gymnast.
But I was able to do it by setting my knee on the top step in a certain way to get upright lifting all my weight with one leg/foot and then rotate. Every time I went to do this maneuver, I was so afraid of falling down the stairs.
The first time I did it was unnerving but I gritted my teeth, was determined and figured it out and just did it. Not elegant but it worked.
The next time I came home and crawled up the stairs, after a long day, I was just so tired and in pain and exhausted that for whatever reason I literally thought and actually said to my husband: “OH I can’t do this! There is no way I can do this!”
I totally forgot I had done it the previous time. I truly just did not believe at that moment that it was phyically possible for me to do that, I did not have the strength or coordination or energy to do it.
And then in a split second I realized I was “talkin smack” to myself. WHOAH!
I remembered I had in fact done it before! WHOAH!
— which proved it was possible — WHOAH!
So I was able to talk myself into believing I could do it again. I couldn’t remember quite how I had done it, and it was pretty tricky to do, but apparently I *could*, and so I thought more constructively about how to do it, and then I did it.
Of course, it was possible all along but I just didn’t believe it/know it. Since I convinced it wasn’t possible, I wouldn’t try to do it. My mind was really holding me back — not my body or the stairs. But it might as well have been caught in a steeel vise or trapped under a thousand pound weight or chained to the floor.
There are other instances where our minds hold us back, things like writing or drawing or whatever. If we don’t really think we can, we don’t. But of course we could pick up the pen or the brush, it’s right there in front of us, there is no physical reason making it impossible, And yet it can seem truly impossible. Ack. Our minds are interesting places for sure.
So anyway, when I saw the title of your post I wondered if you are familiar with “The Art of Possibility” by Rosamund and Benjamin Zander? It is an interesting book, and while I don’t adore everything in it, I did appreciate Mr. Zander’s examples of spreading inspiration and making (seemingly impossible) things work out and the mental framework/reference points he uses in the process.
It’s all sort of a matter of perspective. sorry I got a little carried away here… this is a terrific post! Especially from a person who doesn’t do words. Ahem.