Choices
“Choices are the hinges of destiny” – Pythagoras
Every day in our life choices are made. We say yes, no, or we procrastinate until the decision makes itself. Then we change our mind and turn around 180 degrees. If choices are the hinges of destiny, then every choice is a door.
I read a description once in a scifi novel of a large oval room; there are many doors open around the room and through each one is a different path, a different destiny. You only get a glimpse of each pathway – one was of a desert scene, another a tropical jungle, one was a snowy blizzard in which you couldn’t see anything, there was also a beach scene, and one up in high mountains with nothing to see but trees and more trees.
The hero in the story had to pick one, and there wasn’t enough information to know what you were picking. Was there food to be found? Were they occupied by other humans or some alien creatures? How large was the world he would be entering? If he refused he would have been forced through one of the doors (procrastinating until the choice is forced upon you is never a smart choice).
Sometimes the choices we have in life are like that, in which you really don’t think that you know enough to make an intelligent choice. Would you pick a door that corresponded to the place you grew up in, and were familiar with? For me that would be either the beach scene or the scene with all of the trees. Or would you pick one that would present a challenge, like the blizzard or the desert scene?
Do your choices reflect that you are choosing to live a life of transformation and expansion; or do you choose a life that is comfortable, what you already know how to live?
We have a pond in our back yard that has some koi and goldfish as well as two turtles. The koi tend to grow to the size of their environment and then they stop growing. Most people are like that, because they are afraid to step outside of their comfort level. It is not the circumstances in which you find yourself, it’s the choices you make that define the person you become.
If life is really lived from the inside out, then what you are experiencing today is a result of all of the choices that you have made. Choices determine the kind of person that you have become. The great thing about life, is that every day we get to make new choices.
If you want to grow inside and outside, then choose transformation. Choose the door that goes somewhere you have never been. Choices are scary things, but try every day to make at least one choice from longing instead of flight. That one choice of choosing longing will make all the difference from a life half lived, to a life fully lived.
