Believing in the Impossible

I know it drives my husband crazy that I take so many pictures. But every time I find myself away from home without my camera, I miss the perfect picture. And I hate that! Take tonight, for example.

This evening, we took Sam to a new park to play for a while. It was a great park with lots of old equipment from our day mixed in with some cool new climbers. Sam had a great time trying to make friends with the "big" kids that were there. He needs to work on his pick-up lines, though. "Hey kid" is about all he's got.

There was also a small basketball court and some basketballs. Two other boys were shooting baskets and Sam decided to play, too. He found a ball, walked right up to the goal, lifted the ball as high as he could and tried to make it in the basket. There. That was the moment I wanted my camera. Sam standing under the ten foot basketball goal with his arms stretched to the sky full of confidence that he would put the ball into the net. I turned to Scott and said "I love that he absolutely thinks he can make that basket." Boy, I wish I could tell you he made it, or even came close. But of course, he didn't. He did, however, try several times, never once getting discouraged.

There is nothing like the vision of a child. To see a world full of possibilities with no obstacles. To be nothing but confident and willing to try almost anything. When do we lose that vision?

I just remembered a book I gave Sam a long time ago. Learning to Fly by Sebastain Meschenmoser is a sweet little book. The man in the story starts "Last winter, I found a penguin. He told me he'd been flying. But...penguins can't fly. He knew that. But, penguins are birds, and birds fly, so...he gave it a try. And, he flew. Then he met some other birds. They said, 'Penguins can't fly.' And he thought, 'They're right.' That's when he crashed." For the rest of the story, the man and the penguin try to figure out how he could fly again.

I guess that little moment in time, the one I wasn't able to capture for posterity, with Sam standing beneath the net, touched me so much because I don't ever want him to lose that "I can fly" feeling. I want him to always believe in the impossible and I will always cheer him on. You can fly, Sammy!

That reminds me of a song...and another kid with a basketball...