Let’s choose to engage.  

Let’s contemplate the ways our beliefs are shaped by the choices we make... Or perhaps the opposite is true- our beliefs shape our choices.

Let’s consider our innate power to choose.  

Do you realize how much power rests in your innate ability to choose how you see yourself and the world around you?  

Consider how you might typically react to the following experiences:

• Your plans are changing.  

  Do you embrace the pivot or chafe at the disruption? 

• Your heart is breaking. 

  Do you respect the lessons grief has to offer or resist the discomfort and find ways to numb the pain? 

• Your vision of life is shifting. 

  Do you tenderly hold all that is transforming or do you cling desperately to old, familiar frames? 

How we respond to all that life offers us largely depends on our beliefs

and our ability to  choose how we make-meaning of our experiences. 

Do we choose to see a world of abundance or scarcity?  

Do we choose to see adversity as a wise teacher or a curse?  

Do we choose to see life as an adventure or a grind?  

We often inherit the ways we understand ourselves and the world around us, and, unless we carve space to consider whether these adopted beliefs are truly aligning with our experiences and cultivating a life worth living, too often we are blind to our power to choose. 

The Serenity Prayer reminds us of this divine choice: 

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change;  

The courage to change the things I can;

And the wisdom to know the difference.  

Regardless of what terrain we navigate along our path, we have choices. Choices cultivate serenity. Choices to practice courage. Choices to accept change. And choices to re-cognize (identify; know-again; acknowledge) our power to discern fruitful ways to invest our time, energy, and attention.

When we re-cognize our ability to choose how we make-meaning of ourselves and the world we live in, we re-cognize the inherent power we have as we human through this life.  

I choose to begin with the assertion that our souls chose to be here, on earth, in this  precise moment, for a reason.  

And I choose to assume that by participating in this human-ing journey, I have agreed to  embark on an adventure. 

Perhaps this does not resonate with your own lived experiences.  

Perhaps you can glean insights of your own when you choose to contemplate how and why you believe you are here.  

Though we cannot always choose what experiences we encounter, we can always exercise our ability to discern how we choose to understand our lived experiences.

The way we make meaning of ourselves and the world around us shapes the beliefs we hold, consciously or otherwise, about who we are and how we are able to journey through this human experience. 

Herein lies the glorious and sometimes arduous reality of how we walk our path in life: 

WE CHOOSE.