This is the Life we have chosen.....

I just got home from shul where the Rabbi's sermon was about one of my favorite topics....CHOICE!
It was so refreshing hearing about this from some place other than in my own head.
CHOICE
It's a word that should be accompanied by "personal responsibility".
I hear it all the time.
I had no choice.
What choice did I have?
It wasn't my choice it was just meant to be.
Seriously,at what point do we admit to ourselves that every thing is about the choices we make.
You don't like a situation, choose to change.
You don't like where you are in life?
Choose to move from there.
Every thing is a choice.
It's not your environment.
It's not your heredity.
They may factor in,however it still comes down to the choices we make.
I have a propensity to be overweight.
I choose to deal with that on a daily basis.
The moment I choose to step out of bounds in my food protocols, there is a price to be paid.
Still I have the choice to address it or not. To choose healthy foods or not.To have a little extra or not.
I watch as little news on the television as I can. Just enough to keep myself informed.
Again a choice.
I choose not to buy in to the constant barrage of negativity that the media spews out. I grab the facts (not the headlines) and move on.
Choice!
There is a situation sitting on my desk that I must deal. There is a bit of immediacy about it. The way I handle it is my choice.
Panic,fear,anxiety,depression....all choices. None of which I am willing to make.
Tonight Susan and I will be honored by our community.It is by all accounts a big deal.
People have approached me for the last few days and asked "are you ready,are you excited?"
I suppose I have chosen to be excited in my own quiet way. I am as ready as I think I can be,what ever that means. 
The community chose us for this honor.
For our own very private reasons, we chose to accept this honor.
When I step back and ask myself how this all came about,I am left understanding it is a recognition and a culmination of the choices we have made in out lives.
I imagine that's what makes the whole experience so special.
To paraphrase Hyman Roth in The Godfather...
"This is the life we've chosen".....
It's been a good choice and a good life!

 

Shabbat Shalom!