What Do You Choose?

As we go through life, the chart notes that we keep from our daily life often include a tally of things that perhaps we hope to experience again and those that we hope indeed do not have to experience again. As more days pass by we often begin to choose paths that will enhance or prohibit experiences from happening to us....and at times we even begin to plan in advance the paths that will have the preferred outcome that we perceive to be the best choice for us. Sometimes those paths were shaped by those who raised us, other times from our own experiences, even other times by some perceived set of rules we adhered to....whether valid for us or not. After all, we actively choose what we participate and believe in don't we? The life rules we chose to live by are what can best define what is best for us aren't they? Or are they? Are we authentically choosing our lives or are we allowing choices to be made for us by not making different choices?
A band director once said to a class that an oboeist would never find the lovely songs that an oboe can produce unless he/she hears it played by someone who is gifted at what an oboe sounds like. I know in my own hands, the first sounds my oboe made were more like a dying duck than a beautiful song.....but true to his words, when I had a tape of what the same exact instrument sounded like in experienced hands, my perceptions of the sounds that could come out of such an instrument changed forever.....however even more importantly, when I chose my own instrument, it became apparent that while I had learned to play an oboe adeptly, my gift, my joy, my ability was truly in another area. While well meaning, my guides had chosen what they thought best for me, but my heart path was indeed not in what they had chosen for me. Only in daring to choose the path that was my own, did I escape the mediocrity of playing an instrument that was not me!
Our experiences are our own, but in this time of changing dynamics, economy, careers and lifestyles, what part of limiting our possible outcomes are defined by our very own limiting of what the possibilities are? Are the perceived outcomes of change so rigid as our mind creates them? Is change perceived as adding difficulty to our lives more often than adding joy or as a doorway to experiencing life from a different perspective? What cost is staying the same in our skilled routines, what cost is there in exploring new ways of perceiving our daily actions and life experiences?
What life experiences do you long for? What dreams and visions of who you'd like to be or become do you allow yourself to consider? What does your mind respond to such possibilites of trying?

Point to Ponder:

Do I limit my possible outcomes for my life choices because of my perceived costs of change? Do I allow that cost of change to be truly evaluated, or is simply the price tag perceived to be always out of reach? Is it allowable to pursue change simply because the life we have experience is no longer the life we wish to experience?

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