Quote of the Day - 2/16/2012

Many of us would just as soon have our choices made for us but the heroine, when at a juncture, makes her own choice. - Joan Anderson in A Year by the Sea

~~~~~

When there is a choice that is truly important to us - either for right now or for our future - we should make our own choice. The challenge is recognizing when a choice is truly important. Maybe it isn’t too hard to make the determination if the impact of the choice will happen right away or in the near term. It’s the choices that are more strategic - have an impact months or years away - that are hard to always recognize. The best approach may be to always participate in choices (rather than abdicating) so that the results are still our own too. Only children are allowed to not be fully responsible for their selves.

Remember the old notion of a ‘grown up?’ The implication was that a ‘grown up’ was someone that was not growing/changing in contrast to children that were doing both. While I do know a lot of people that are trying hard not to grow larger, I don’t know anyone that is not changing. Change happens to us all even if we do nothing. Many people have discovered that change and continued learning is just the way they want to live. And that brings us back to the idea of the quote “when at a juncture, makes her own choice.”

The Luxuries in Life

What is your unique perception of luxury? Suspend the outside influences on your perception (and there are a lot of them so this can take some effort).

When I did this for myself recently – I was surprised that the luxuries of my life are plentiful and often easily achieved. Here’s my list: 

1. Seeing a beautiful sunrise or sunset and not having to rushing off to some other activity (picture at right is a rainbow at sunset)
2. Confident enough of food availability to not eat excessively – ever
3. Dark chocolate for breakfast
4. Visiting my daughter on my birthday
5. Hot tea on a cold day
6. Having time to celebrate or grieve rather than soldiering on bravely
7. Spending the majority of my day on things I choose
8. A new computer that is working exactly the way I want it to
9. Beauty and function in the same object like the leaf coaster I have in my office (picture on right)
10. Naturally long fingernails  

Analyzing my list of 10, I discovered some themes: 

• Food (2, 3, 5)
• Relationships (4, 6)
• Visual beauty (1, 9, 10)
• Choices (7,8) 

Recognizing and acknowledging the luxury in life is closely linked to feelings of thankfulness and happiness for me. Maybe this exercise of taking a snapshot of luxuries is worth doing more often!