Choices

We make our choices every day

We can let our baggage determine our destination

Or we can store it in the attic with the past, and pack for the journey we want to have now

We can allow ourselves to be victims of our experiences

Or we can stand up and refuse to be victims, and find a way to be survivors

 

We can let our choices and regrets define us

Or we can learn from our mistakes and make better choices

We can descend into a spiral of self-destruction

Or we can embrace our own emotional pain to find compassion, appreciation, wisdom and humility

 

We can wonder why the world is not in sync with us

Or we can recognize that we’re all on our own unique, profound and important voyage

We can think we’re the center of everyone’s universe

Or we can transcend our ego and realize that our problems don’t take precedence over all others

 

We can enable our family or friends by feeding their addictions

Or we can treat them like adults and hold them accountable for their actions and choices

We can get angry when someone confronts us with our bad behavior

Or we can act like adults and take responsibility for our own actions and choices

 

We can become angry and say mean things to hurt people

Or we can remember that though our anger flows outward, the hurt we inflict crawls deep inside

We can hurt other people and just go on with our lives

Or we can apologize when we realize we’ve been wrong

 

We can throw people away like used Kleenex after a disagreement

Or we can swallow our pride and find a way to work it out, even if we have to agree to disagree

We can blacken our souls with resentment and hatred, for others or ourselves

Or we can try to forgive, knowing how rare and significant second chances can be

 

We can blame others for hurting our feelings or angering us

Or we can recognize that hurt and anger are both, for the most part, self-generated

We can blame the people around us for our unhappiness and misery

Or we can realize that our happiness is our responsibility alone

 

We can trudge through our lives feeling lonely and all alone

Or we can have the courage to reach out our own hand to make a connection

We can feel all alone and swear that no one loves us

Or we can realize that giving love is the only true way to receive it

 

We can be full of our own opinions, beliefs, fears, hopes, resentments and desires

Or we can be open to discussions on a multitude of other potential possibilities

We can believe what others tell us without thought or question

Or we can have an open questioning mind and refuse to drink the Kool-Aid

 

We can get up every morning dreading the day ahead

Or we can keep our eyes and hearts open to the wonder of each day’s potential possibilities

We can live someone else’s dreams, someone else’s expectations, someone else’s life

Or we can search for our own passion, our own dreams, our own inspiration

 

We can think that everyone else’s issues are their own problem

Or we can share our strength, our courage, our knowledge, our experience

We can think we’re perfect, that it’s everyone else around us who is wrong

Or we can search out and recognize our own flaws and do our best to address them

 

We can complain about the world going to hell around us

Or we can find a way to make our own difference, our own impact on the chaos

We can spend our lives yearning for our perfect Paradise Island

Or we can realize that paradise is not a physical place but a feeling

 

We can give up and admit defeat, out of fear or plain exhaustion

Or we can have the courage to stand up and try again, and again if necessary

We can quit when the road ahead looks too hard or too dangerous

Or we can endure and sacrifice to gain satisfaction, achievement and knowledge

 

We can shun those different from us and keep our self-defined distance

Or we can seek out the opportunities to experience the complexities of such diversity

We can work hard to be like everyone else around us

Or we can appreciate the complex and original work of art we are

 

We can be obsessed with finding the perfection in ourselves and others

Or we can find the infinite beauty and absolute splendor in the imperfect and ordinary

We can make the easy choices, the ones that bring us the most gain with the least pain

Or we can make the right choices, the sometimes difficult but ultimately most mutually beneficial