It just cannot be done.

It was brought to my attention once again during a conversation that my family dread when somebody says to me that I will never manage to do something.  They know that such words are like a red rag to a bull. I can see my family physically cringe at thought of me with no other thoughts in my mind than proving whoever said that to being proved wrong.

I all started when I was just a very young boy. I am not at all sure if my mother had discovered the secret of how to get me to do things or if she genuinely believed that I often had ideas well above expectations.

I remember the year, my second year at secondary school. I had got my eye on a Trent Tourer bicycle in Halfords window in Dunfermline. I was not in the habit of asking for things but on this occasion, I had tried to strike a deal on pocket money and household tasks. Eventually, in despair, my mother put down the challenge. if your report card comes home showing that you are in the top three of the class we will get the bicycle. I am sure she felt this was never going to happen. I am sure that I also felt I had been set an impossible task. never had I been anywhere near the top three.

The report cards came out, I had worked my socks off, I was placed at number three in the class. true to her word the Trent Tourer was mine a week later. I had to cycle every Friday after school the four miles to Halfords to make the weekly payment but it was worth all the effort. I got years of pleasure from that first bicycle I ever owned as a youth.

It is possible to make the impossible possible.

I remember the day s when a group of us from my teenage period had been brought together by the new local minister. he challenged us to write some modern hymns. A group of us almost randomly brought together. Did we have any experience? I do not think so, but that did not stop us from trying.

Together we did produce some modern hymns that even to this day I hear being sung or am told about them being sung. I am not sure of any of those will ever survive for any real length of time but for a group of us to even manage any at all was something.

There is a true account of an event in 1912.  Two Irish music hall players were spending an afternoon in a pub at Stalybridge in Cheshire, England. They were extolling the musical traditions of Ireland. 

It is said that on that day they boasted they could write and perform a song on the same day.

It might have been a gimmick to stimulate attendance or it could have been genius jumping out of its bag, for It's a Long Way to Tipperary was performed that night at the Stalybridge Grand Theater by Jack Judge and Harry Williams. 

It was an overnight success that gained tremendous popularity during World War I as an Allies marching song. Produced written and the music to go with it all within about an hour. 

The next time you feel yourself feeling confident, challenge yourself to do the impossible. You just may. 

I firmly believe that each and every one of us has something of value within us waiting to burst forth and bring joy and pleasure to others. 

Have a marvellous day.