Your Choice

November 2012

I’ve been thinking lately about how we all have the same amount of time in a day. 

We all have limited energy levels.  We all need sleep and food and nourishment.  We need each other and have choices as to how we connect in the limited time we all share.

We have choices.   We can choose how we share our finite resources and time, as limited as that may feel.  We all have choices as to how we speak to other human beings.

We can choose to get up and walk with, or alongside others.  Or, we can choose to sit still and listen to someone else.  We can choose not to listen as well.

We can choose to smile. 

Somehow, we have in common those small, shy vulnerable moments in which we make choices to live.  We can choose to be open to love, unexpected and real - and we have the same amount of time in a day in which to choose.

I’ve also been thinking lately that we make choices without knowing what the consequences could possibly be.  We hope and dream and strive [and sometimes give up and shut down]… often before decisions are fully realised.

We don’t really know where we are going, or what the choice will lead to.  Maybe it’s going nowhere.  Maybe we don’t consciously choose, because we don’t feel we have any choices.  Our choice then is to react.

My favourite choices have been when I fall into step with others who are journeying.  I choose to walk alongside a while, and others choose to walk with  me also.  I like the swing of shared steps and the banter on the road.  I like how our bodies move in response to the landscape and weather; how we need at times to hold hands or share loads.

The choices at the beginning are simple: to start down the track and engage with what happens.  I like how we tell each other stories as we move together. I like that the choice becomes about whether we love, and live in love - and choose to respond to love.

I like that we don’t really know what is over the next hill, but that we have made a choice to trust and hope and believe.  For somehow, we have in common those small, shy vulnerable moments in which we make choices to live.

We can choose to be open to love, unexpected and real - and we have the same amount of time in a day in which to choose.

Image: Edward Monkton