Faith or Fear
Peace or Drama
Love or Hate
Yes or No
Change or Stagnate
Health or Illness
Action or Inaction
Belief or Doubt
Joy or Despair
Action or Complacency
Uncomfortable or Comfortable
In life, we are presented with many choices. Everyday. Every minute. Some come easily and don’t feel like a choice, while others feel like the biggest decision you’ve ever had to make.
Our karma, or our life choices, are what have brought us to the place that we are today. And I don’t mean karma in a vindictive sense – this is the version of the word that the world has brought to life. We use karma as a threatening life sentence – something to throw at someone that made us mad to make ourselves feel better. The Bible also speaks of this, “You reap what you sow” (Galatians 6:7).
The dictionary definition of karma is: destiny or fate, following as effect from cause.
Everyday you are presented with choices. The choices that you make will become your life.
It is so easy to look at life and to wonder why things are the way they are. To allow yourself to believe that the things that have happened to you, you have no control over. It is especially easy to believe these things when you’ve lived a hard life. A life full of worry, anxiety, or depression. It is hard to accept responsibility for these things. But just like the child that resents the parent for the discipline, we aren’t taking responsibility for our actions.
I want to add a side note to explain that you can also be affected by many choices other than your own – when other people’s actions directly interfere with your life, that is not your doing. It is someone else’s choices affecting you. But you do have a choice in how you respond to these actions. You have a choice in how you move forwards.
Please know that I say this with the utmost love. That these beliefs do not come easy for me as someone who has had to live out my choices. It is so incredibly easy for me to look at my past and find blame. But in the end, that doesn’t help me at all. It cushions me and allows me to keep making those decisions. To continue living in that life.
Until you are able to accept responsibility for where you are, you won’t be able to move on.
You need to be able to look at life, square in the face, with new eyes, and with the perspective of ownership. After all, if you don’t own your life, then who does? If you haven’t created this life, then who did?
Who are you giving your power to?
In our creative journeys, in our life, we have choices. We can choose to remain, or we can choose to grow. We can choose to get up and chase our dreams, or we can choose relative safety and live comfortably, continuing to believe that we have no power, and that things just happen to us.
Living out your calling, your fire, your Soul’s Purpose, isn’t the easy choice in the beginning. It is full of what-if’s and maybe’s. It is as hard as deciding to have a family and raise new life. It needs to be a choice, every minute of every day. The choice to not back down. The choice to fight. The choice to direct your energy where it feels right instead of easing back into that comfortable way of life.
It’s not going to be difficult forever, though. These choices will get easier and easier with time. And in the moments when you find yourself slipping back into comfort, don’t be so hard on yourself. You’re not back-sliding.
When you allow the belief of back-sliding to come into your life, you are losing control, yet again. You are giving something else that power, the authority, over the choices that you’ve made and the life that you’re living. You are discounting all of the beautiful lessons that you’ve learned and all the hard work that you’ve put into it! You are taking away from the fact that you are now coming at this life with new, ever-growing eyes. A new lens.
Do not allow yourself to slip into the trap of “starting over”!
You will NEVER have to start over, unless there is a freak accident that wipes everything from your brain! You are the sum of your learning, experiences, and choices. And each time you are presented with a new choice (or an old one that you feel like you have to keep making over and over again), you always have the ability to apply everything that you have learned. You are constantly a new person.
Like the Pocahontas song – “What I love most about rivers is, you can’t step in the same river twice. The water’s always changing, always flowing.” You are not the person that you were a year ago, a month ago, a week ago, even an hour ago.
As an aside, I want to ask if you are filtering the experiences that you let in? Your gut will tell you when an experience isn’t serving you. We often lie to ourselves and say that it doesn’t matter, but this isn’t the case. It will still change and affect you.
Our experiences are always changing us. We can either decide to embrace that change, or we can live stagnantly and let yourself believe that you are the same person that you were ten years ago.
Don’t let this time slip away without giving yourself some credit.
Don’t let this time slip away without taking ownership of your life.
Don’t let this time slip away without creating the life that you’ve always wanted!
Crooked Cedar Collective 