Every choice
Makes other choices impossible. At times, a choice is foisted upon us, whether by fate or biology.
Other times, we gladly make a choice in one direction, drawn either by the promise of reward or the comfort of peace.
Having children may make a certain career, education or lifestyle impossible – or more difficult, than not having children. Yet, how many people with children would not make the same choice again?
Making the choice for one career over another may not always be a conscious choice, but a channeling of one person into a field because that’s where the openings are in their area. Rather than move, not seeing that as a choice, the person goes into that field only to find that they are injured through the work, which narrows their future choices.
How we feed our bodies is a choice. Either vegetarian, paleo, or whether we overeat or undereat, can be a choice. Sometimes it’s a choice foisted upon us by the food desert where we live, where only processed food is available; or perhaps we live in a rural area where food is plentiful and heavy, based on grains and dairy products. We may not see this as a choice, but it is a choice, none the less. We choose to live where we live. We may not want to live there, but it is a choice. Our choice is to leave the area, our family and friends, to strike out on our own: to put our lives in the hands of fate.
Some choices are scary, some choices are simple. A scary choice might be to jump out of an airplane. But if that airplane is on fire and you have a parachute, the choice becomes simple: jump or die. Scary, probably, but you are jumping out of an airplane, it isn’t meant to be comforting.
To ask someone out for the first time – whether for coffee or a date, is scary. That person may not be interested and turn you down. Or they may say yes, and that can be more scary. The choice is scary for them, too. it’s moving forward, and making a change.
Change is scary.
And choices can bring change.
The choice of what movie to watch tonight may not be an important choice, but then again, it might. If you learn something you hadn’t known before, it was important.
Whether to go to college, whom to marry, if and when to have children, where to live, what to eat, how to educate your mind and heart, whether and where to travel, how to discipline your body – all these choices are important. Not all of these choices stop you from making other choices. But some can. If you marry Joe, you can’t also marry Carl. If you have children, you can’t put them back on the shelf. The career path you choose in New York City may not be available for you in Lexington, Kentucky. And if you are seriously injured, you may never be able to walk again. But then again, you might.
Wait – what?
How did injury get into this?
Injury is often a choice. Not a conscious choice, but a soul choice. Either to slow you down so that you do what you are supposed to do, or to learn the lessons you are supposed to learn. It was pre-ordained that you would be injured – and you would survive it.
The point is,
Choices are all around us. How we respond to the results is important. The choices are actually important, too. Each choice narrows our path as we go forward.
In the multiverse concept, each choice is taken. It is an ever-expanding multiverse with every choice making a new universe where another choice was made.
Today, I live in the universe where the choices I took place me. There’s a way to “jump over” to another universe where another choice was taken, but all the past choices remain the same. I haven’t mastered that, yet. I don’t know that I need to worry about it.
If I could change the past,
Beasley would not have gotten out and been run over. That’s the only regret I have right now.
Yeah, money regrets, car regrets, but nothing permanent like his death. That still shadows me.
Morgen L Marshall 