What if?
Two little words
One formidable question
Two words that can change a life
I know
Trust me. I know
That is, if you append a phrase
What if? nothing’s stopping us
What if? we dig a little deeper
What if? we can make a difference?
What if? the only real boundaries are those self-imposed
What if it’s possible to step into a mindset that allows us to become the person we—oh so desperately—want to be?
I think it’s possible
Scratch that
I know it is
Allow me this brief personal tale
Almost twenty years ago, my doctors tagged me with a chronic illness. A hateful, woeful, ok-now-this-isn’t-funny type of disease called ulcerative colitis
A sickness that left me asking, “Why me?”
To this day my doctor’s prognosis echoes, “There is no cure, and it will get worse.”
He was right too
At least on that second part
At least at first
UC was an unpleasant, uncomfortable disorder—my own 800 lb (and yes I mean to spell it this way) guerilla
For a while
For a while, it overpowered me. It became my reason to stop dreaming. My anthem of lost hope
I was in a funk. It was a bad one
Then, not long ago, over the course of a few weeks, I learned something new
I learned I could take charge. I could be happy
And I learned it was possible to ignore my illness, and to aim high—to go for the big ones
During that time, uninspired in my work, I imagined a different life
Interesting. Inspiring. Meaningful.
It’s happening
All because of two words
What if?
What if there is a different way of believing. A fresh way of perceiving, of understanding, and of accepting…
That things didn’t have to be the way they were
That’s all it took. Really
Many of my days now unravel in ways never before experienced. In ways once but imagined
In ways often surprising and, yes, sometimes unsettling
But push on I will—as push on we all must—imagining further
Imagining new projects (which I’ll soon describe) and new experiences (stay tuned)
All because of the unbounded possibilities embedded in that question, “What if?”
And so
For those not where they’d like to be
For those left uncertain—exposed to conjecture
About their current state
Here’s all I offer
Ask the question
“What if?”
Then
Embrace what is revealed
