The Gift of Choice

I believe that the most powerful gift we as human beings have been given is something we often feel we don’t have: choice. We may often say or hear “I had no choice!” But is that really true? Did we really have no choice? No. We may choose between two things we don’t like, but we always make a choice.

Likewise, we always have a choice about how we respond to things that happen in our lives. Two people may experience the same tragedy. One of them is destroyed and lives out their days in spite and regret, while the other might create a lifetime of service, using that personal disaster to minister to others in need. The difference is choice.

The Gift of Choice

When first you wake up in your bed

You create your day within your head.

Colored by your dreams from the night

You run the risk of starting with fright.

But the wise ones know they have a voice

They have the powerful gift of choice.

Your breakfast burns and traffic stops

Communication fails and the internet drops.

Before you curse and stomp and seethe

Take a moment to pause and breathe.

While life seems to fail with every nuance

The outcome depends on your response.

Choose to laugh or choose to shrug

And you just might avoid that anxiety drug.

Or spiral downward, circling the drain

And soon your whole body will feel the pain.

Life is not defined by the battles that you’ve fought

Instead it is created by things that you have thought.

There will be hurt, there will be loss

But you can still show life who’s the boss.

With every torment there’s a chance

To take that ache and make it dance.

Watch and see how each day you face

The chance to counter rage with grace.

The wise ones know they have a voice

They have the powerful gift of choice.

When you lay down in your bed

Remember…you make tomorrow in your head.

© J. Belle Ortega 2015