Choices

Human Life is made up of choices. We strive day in and day out to make the right ones. To choose well. To pick the correct. To settle for what seems the best. To do as we deem fit. We sift the chaff from the wheat. And in the process, we make many mistakes.

Mistakes are good, mistakes are essential, mistakes are the foundation of ‘The’ life we choose to lead. Because, from mistakes we learn. The ever beautiful word encompassing all that life has to teach.

We have to make conscious decisions every moment of our day. Sometimes huge and sometimes trivial ones. We have to live through the consequences of our ruling, our choices and our rubicons. Someone even tells me, that, we actually choose our parents before we take birth! Wow, Seems like a prodigious burden on small lean shoulders, right!?

Charles Lamb said –
The measure of choosing well, is, whether a man likes and finds good in what he has chosen.

This makes sense to me. Yes it does. We are given choices, and we try to take what seems to fit well in the current situation and whether good or bad, we have to live by the consequences.
But.
Yes, there’s a big but. Every life’s scenario is viewed from our vision of experience and learning. There are many perspectives to a glass filled half with water.
Some find it half full, some half empty, some may find the water undrinkable, some may find the glass dirty and some freaks may find the table on which the glass is kept, not apt for the glass! It’s how we choose to see what life has to offer.

I was a huge pessimist in my early days, like, when I was growing up. Always grumpy, grouchy and irritated. I wanted everything around me to be immaculate. My scores should be full and my appearance apt in front of friends who I thought were the best I could find. Coercing my parents to be indefectible, and disciplining my unruly sisters to be impeccable, I created a mini hell of the world around me. Yeah, I was that kid who cried if he got a 98 in maths, wondering where did those 2 whole marks go!

But Life has been kind. With all my antagonistic approach, I was gifted with wonderful people around me. I met just the right guy in college. He could take in my cynicism and gaiety with equal ease. He loved me for not what I exhibited in my dissidence but for what I was really. He chose to look at me with different eyes. He believed in me.
Thinking about my past, I feel so small. I had everything a kid could ask for. Still I did not see it. I chose not to see it.

But along with all my mistakes, came the learning part. I am now thankful for all that I have chosen and for all that I have been given.

I like my life, in fact I love it. I have the best parents in the world. The craziest siblings, a wonderful amazing guy for a husband, A healthy beautiful daughter and great supportive friends. The people who work for me are genuine and helpful.
And they all come with their flaws. But hey, who said, I was perfect. I don’t want perfect people around me. They seem plastic and non living. I like people who make mistakes, I admire people who make mistakes and learn from them.

There! it’s as straight as that. Life is going to be complicated any which ways. So why entangle it more?

Lets be clear, lets keep life simple.
Clear away your foggy glasses, and lo! your view of something that was dreary and awful has transformed into something more magical and inviting.

The first rule from the “40 rules of Love”, by Shams E Tabriz, is about our attitude towards a life full of choices —
How we see God is a direct reflection of how we see ourselves. If God brings to mind mostly fear and blame, it means there is too much fear and blame welled inside us. If we see God as full of love and compassion, so are we.

Here, God can be a situation, a person, a place, an event, a grain of sand, the entire universe or simply your whole existence/ your entire being.
Remember, Bad is not that bad. and mind you, Good is not that good. It’s like they say, never be too happy in your successes and too sad in your failures… oh man! I get all preachy when I write. My twisted sisters tease me about it, the husband makes fun and friends roll their eyes when I talk. But I still choose to ignore them(:)) and write away my dreams and my thoughts which nowadays seem fleeter than the wind!

I believe I am taking the right steps. And I also believe that if I fall, I will get up and get going again.

I end quoting one of my favorite poets: Robert Frost –

“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 travelled by,
And that has made all the difference.”

Life of Choices.

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