Choices

There are always two choices. Two paths to take. One is easy. And its only reward is that it's easy.  --Unknown

The strongest principle of growth lies in human choice.  -- George Eliot

It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.  -- Joanne Kathleen Rowling


There are two primary choices in life; to accept conditions as they exist, or accept the responsibility for changing them.  -- Denis Waitley


What we call the secret of happiness is no more a secret than our willingness to choose life.  -- Leo Buscaglia


You are the person who has to decide. Whether you'll do it or toss it aside; you are the person who makes up your mind. Whether you'll lead or will linger behind. Whether you'll try for the goal that's afar. Or just be contented to stay where you are. -- Edgar A. Guest


I discovered I always have choices and sometimes it's only a choice of attitude.  –Unknown


I haven’t done much writing lately because I have been in a holiday-induced-funk.  I tend to get this way weeks before Thanksgiving.  I’m not sure what puts me in this cloud other than choices that I’m trying to sort-out.  I sometimes tend to over-think when I am trying to make decisions, which is sometimes good and sometimes bad.  When I stand at the crossroads of life I know that no matter what choice I make I will lose the ability to go back.  I really like the poem by Robert Frost, The Road Not Taken:

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth; Then took the other, as just as fair, And having perhaps the better claim Because it was grassy and wanted wear, Though as for that the passing there Had worn them really about the same, And both that morning equally lay In leaves no step had trodden black. Oh, I marked the first for another day! Yet knowing how way leads on to way I doubted if I should ever come back. I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I, I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.

This is a wonderful poetic example about how our choices in life are sometimes the road that others might not choose.  I like the ability to choose but sometimes our choices are at the mercy of others.  We cannot change the minds of others but we can learn to live with their choices and how they affect our lives.  We have to make the conscious choice to be happy in spite of them.
When we focus on performance to be happy we will often fall-short.  When we focus on our inner being for happiness we will behave differently, joyously.  When we try to control others is when we begin to lose our joy.  We try to control (or lessen) the pains of life however this does not bring joy either.  We must learn from all things that happen, the joys and pains.  There is always something positive to see in every situation no matter how bleak it might seem at that moment.  


We cannot focus on where we are going because it makes the journey less joyous.  We must live in the moment headed down the path we have chosen and align our beliefs with our choices. 
Happiness is a choice we make every day when our eyes open each morning.  We have to love those that are accepting and even those that are not.  Sometimes we have to just accept what happens and move on in life rather than dwell in the past.  I heard a quote when I was a child that has always stuck with me:  A ship that sails backwards never sees the sunrise.  We cannot live in the past because we will never be able to move into the future if we stay there.  We all have made mistakes but learning from them and moving on is what life is about.  We have to enjoy where we are before we can see what our future might hold.  We cannot hide from choices because not choosing is a choice.


Here is a good article about choosing happiness:  http://www.innerbonding.com/show-article/2685/the-happiness-choice.html