Everything Possible

For the past four years I have sung Joe the same lullaby that I sang to Emma that my Dad sang to me. I don't know the official title, but I always called it "baby's boat" because that begins the first line. Occasionally, I will sing a second tune, but this song has been Joe's favorite. Over the past week as I have begun to sing him to sleep he will put his hand up and say "No, mama, no baby's boats." When I reply, "what shall I sing?" He says something that sounds like "shoes" but is in fact "choose." This is similar to what Emma used to call the lullaby "Everything Possible" by folksinger Fred Small. She would ask me to sing "you can choose." I love that they have both landed on this song and that they both found this one word to claim it for themselves. And what is it that my son would like to hear sung to him at the end of every day?

"You can be anybody you want to be, you can love whomever you will. You can travel to any country where your heart leads, and know I will love you still. You can live by yourself, you can gather friends around, you can choose one special one. And the only measure of your words and your deeds, will be the love you leave behind when your done."