SL Life Lessons: Live In The Impossible

Many years ago my mother, Sodonia Luckie, set out on a seemingly impossible quest. To pursue my sister’s dream of meeting her teen idols, Michael Jackson and the Jackson 5. Before heading on this journey, my mother knew she’d face many obstacles including:

▪ No address– she did not possess the home address of Michael Jackson and the world famous Jackson 5.
▪ No guarantees– if she discovered the address of Michael Jackson and the Jackson 5, there was no guarantee that Katherine and Joe Jackson would allow us to meet their superstar sons.
▪ Limited finances– Sodonia, a single mother of two children, had limited finances. Raising enough money to take her two children cross-country from New York City to California would be no easy task.

How was she able to overlook the obstacles that lie ahead? No doubt, the love for her child was one driving force. Another, however, was her ability to live in the impossible. The uncanny ability to find peace and comfort in uncertain and uncomfortable situations. The ability to look beyond the mountains that stood in the pathway of attaining her daughter’s dream. Ignoring her thoughts that seem to scream ‘…this can’t be done…The risk of failure is too great…there are no guarantees!” and instead listening to that soft still voice in her soul that seem to whisper ‘…with God, nothing is impossible…’

Though she had to endure two unsuccessful weeks of searching for the home of Michael Jackson and one week we’d spend living in a shelter because she ran out of money, Sodonia never panicked. Instead she seem to find comfort in an uncomfortable seemingly impossible situation. Her ability to live in the impossible paid off. Not only did she find the home of the Jacksons, allowing us to spend a day with Michael Jackson and the entire family, but we were invited back by Mrs. Jackson for a second visit to attend a private party hosted by Michael Jackson and the world famous Jackson 5.

When we live in the relative comfort, safety, and certainty of the possible, we experience what is ordinarily possible. However, when we are able to live in the impossible and endure its vagaries, discomforts and uncertainties, we position ourselves to experience the impossible.