I'm Possible by Jeremy Cowart

Author:Jeremy Cowart
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Published: 2019-02-25T16:00:00+00:00

Among the most important advice I give to my fellow creators and entrepreneurs is this: see the gaps, the holes, the missed opportunities, especially in times of need or crisis. Then do something about it.

How do you identify the gaps and the holes? Often it’s through frustration. A story isn’t told the way you’d like. A product doesn’t have a feature you need. People are being treated less like people and more like objects. Frustration, frustration, frustration. If you listen to those frustrations, if you turn your creative energy to what might fix those frustrations, the possibilities you discover might surprise you.

Some of the most important work I’ve done has been born out of frustration. Watching the coverage of the Haiti earthquake, I saw the gap, the hole. The news outlets were speaking for the Haitians instead of allowing the Haitians to speak for themselves—at least that’s the way I saw it. Reporters, photographers, and videographers were too busy sensationalizing the destruction, and, as I watched, my sense of frustration growing, I saw the need.

Some may say that frustration isn’t a good enough motivator, that it can lead people to take uncalculated risks. And I guess those folks are right to some extent. In my growing frustration over the lack of human stories coming out of Haiti, did I calculate the craziness of the situation on the ground? The potential danger of the situation? The emotional impact it would have on me? Probably not. But as the idea for elevating the human stories set in, I knew I had to try to make a difference. I knew my photography could affect the lives of the people telling the stories, the lives of those hearing them, and my life too. I knew because I knew the power of images, the power of art.

Frustration led me off the couch and into action. It gave me the motivation to push through any potential fear. It moved me to get involved in a real and tangible way, and that involvement changed me. It changed the way I viewed photography, the ways in which images and the written word could be blended to make an impact. It changed the way I saw the Haitian people—the strength, resilience, and hope they displayed in their darkest hour. Ultimately, it would change my family too.

In the months that followed, Shannon reminded me of a phone call we’d shared in Haiti.

“Do you remember when you called me from Haiti and said, ‘I think our lives are about to change’?”

“Yes,” I said.

“Maybe we really need to follow that. Maybe it’s time to adopt.”

It was our first conversation about adopting from Haiti, one that led to us starting our adoption journey in 2012. And on May 21, 2015, that journey reached its joy-filled crescendo. That was the day Ebbe and Eli, two Haitian children who’d been raised in the same orphanage, entered our lives. That was the day the Cowart family became complete.

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