I Am the Possibility REALIZED.

ten years ago, I was 32 years old, "graduating" from the Self Expression and Leadership Program with the Forum People. My assignment for the class was to produce our first BackYard Benefit for the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

I found the video of the show last night, while searching for something else. But it was late, and I was drunk, so I put it in. The video opens with a close up of the pink fairy roses Ricky had planted, and we never appreciated, and pulls back so we can see the set (my brand new deck). We can see all our guests in the foreground, the piano and drums on the deck. My niece is there in the front row. Michelle. When the applause whelms as Doug M. sits at the piano and begins his brilliant overture, I could see her, my lovely niece in her wheelchair, clapping and chirping, "Yes! Yes! Yes!"

I love those people! So many good friends, many still here, some lost, one gone. I hope they remember how great they are, I know I forgot how great I can be. On June 17, 1995 we created magic, raising enough money to send a child with Aplastic Anemia, (Sandra, from Woodbridge, Virginia) on a Hawaiian Vacation with her family. And we had a hell of a good time doing it.

My director’s notes for the program show how jazzed I was about the whole event. It says, “Tonight I am the Possibility of Excitement, Creativity, Compassion, Love, and Unstoppable Commitment REALIZED.” It’s gotta make you laugh. Audacious, but still, I was very proud.

There has got to be a way to make it last. There should be an easy way to remember that I am somebody, that we are all somebody. But it isn’t easy. It’s only easy to forget, to remember you have to do it again and again and make your life about fulfilling your possibility every moment. When I think about how inert I am, it all seems like such a joke.

But on that night with such wonderful friends together on a clear beautiful night in my garden, pumped with excitement to be making a difference for the Make-A-Wish Foundation, fueled by the piano, bass, drums, and applause- I was somebody.

I existed. I was proud.