Death of a Legend

"Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men

who find it easier to live in a world they've been given 

than to explore the power they have to change it. 

Impossible is not a fact. It's an opinion.

Impossible is not a declaration. It's a dare.

Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary.

Impossible is nothing." 

~Muhammad Ali, 1942-2016~

Muhammad Ali died yesterday. It's always sad when humanity loses a legendary person, and he was one. Daddy always loved watching him box. Something about the two of them always seem kindred spirits to me. Both of them faced Life with a tenacity and "stick-to-it-iveness" (a made up word I heard as a kid) that really left an impression on me as I was growing up. Both had strong opinions, and both weren't afraid to stand up for what they believed.

I'll always remember my Dad. He died back in 1988, but the lessons he taught me about life, and how to do things, and how to treat people will stay with me as long as I live. I've tried to pass those values down to my children. Dad would have liked the quote that I put at the beginning of this post. He would have talked long and hard (as the saying goes) about how it was true, and what it meant.

He always told me that I had the potential to be whatever I wanted to be. That served me more than perhaps anything else anyone told me when I was growing up. He didn't' know that one day I'd be called upon to figure out how to raise three children all on my own without a spouse. He didn't know that one day I'd have to figure out how to go back to school at the same time, so that I could make enough money to be able to raise those three children. He didn't know the hardships and trials that I'd be put through, all on my own, during those hard years, nor the hard decisions I'd have to make along the way. But what he DID know was the potential in every person to be more than they think they can be. The key is to never give up, always keep trying. Things will work out in the least expected ways sometimes.

I look back on my childhood with gratitude and fondness. Glad for the people that influenced me and the things I learned along the way.

Believe in yourself! There's much more inside you than you are aware of.