“You choose, you live the consequences. Every yes, no, maybe, creates the school you call your personal experience” (Richard Bach).
EACH TIME WE MAKE A CHOICE, TAKING ONE FORK IN THE ROAD AND NOT THE OTHER, AN INTERESTING THING HAPPENS. On the one hand, our lives expand. As we move forward along the path we’ve chosen, new elements are added to our experience. But on the other hand, our lives contract. The path we didn’t take is no longer a possibility. Whatever might have been if we’d chosen that option is something we’ve now let go of. Similar choices might open up in the future, but they won’t be identical. They will be made in different circumstances and will have different pluses and minuses. Once any choice has been made, it is a historical fact. If it was a bad choice, we may be forgiven, but we’ll still need to admit that we were the person who made that choice. For most of us, history is a humbling thing!
None of us is happy with every choice we’ve ever made. Now and then, we all make decisions that yield regrettable consequences. But there are two points to keep in mind. One is the point made by Richard Bach above: “Every yes, no, maybe, creates the school you call your personal experience.” The wonderful variety in life — the exquisite particularity of each individual — comes largely from the combination of a person’s choices, both the painful and the pleasant. Not many of us have flawless complexions, and we don’t have perfect track records in our lives either. In both cases, we must learn to be comfortable in our own “skin” — a skin we started making the first time we used our free will to make a decision on our own.
But the second point is that we should have the maturity and discipline to act honorably concerning our choices. The man who says, “I’ll honor this contract as long as it doesn’t stand between me and something else I might want in the future,” is probably not a fellow we’d want to go into business with. We all want to deal with people who honor their choices, so we need to honor ours as well. In the end, it helps to know that life is made better, not worse, by things like trust and honor. We can’t always hedge our bets, run away from risk, and try to wiggle out of inconvenient commitments after we’ve made them. Choices made and promises kept are the stuff of life.
“Life does not give itself to one who tries to keep all its advantages at once” (Léon Blum).
Gary Henry – WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com
