A Moment with Donna…Choices

This was an article that I wrote for a magazine and thought I would share this commentary with you this month. There are a few adjustments but its essence I feel is pertinent to today’s environment.

Our lives, our personal stories, are created by our choices … whether to go one direction or another, love this person or another, or take a particular job or another. Sounds simple, but is it?

It is so easy to look at life as black or white, one aspect of perception only, rather than what other shades of perception might truly be available to us. All too frequently we are taught to think, feel a certain way and our actions demonstrate what those perceptions are. We too often do not give a moment to ask ourselves what actions are appropriate unless something calls our attention to a better way of behaving.

As an observer of myself, of life in general, I see that as children we enter this world with an inquisitive self, typically unencumbered with burdensome biases. We grow up in whatever environment we have entered, and then, spend most of our lives working to undo the hates, angers, beliefs that have become unnecessary baggage in our lives. Somewhere I heard a statement made that we humans make our lives as happy or as miserable as we want. What do you think?

Happiness, joy, fulfillment, peace…all these components and many more, come from within ourselves, not from outside factors. No matter who we are, what our previous or present environments might be, or what circumstances might exist in our past and present, our choices of how we deal with them is our power of greatness within. What will we give our attention to; how we will focus our actions and; where do we want to see ourselves in present, as well as in the future?

Is this an easy task? No, this discipline is not easy. Daily we are pummeled with propaganda of one kind or another. So many mentors of different backgrounds/experiences hover around us claiming they have the answers to everything. How do those mentors appear? Through films, books, social media, and the list goes on and on. Discernment is the key. Usually through the practical experience of interacting with others we should listen carefully to what is presented and then evaluate if something or someone is suitable for us to give our attention to. What to do?

My mentor told me one day ‘Donna, just live life’, after telling me there was nothing more she could teach me. Seriously? What does that mean ‘just live life’? It took a long time for me to realize what she meant was I needed to participate in life and not run from it. Experience teaches discernment. There are no shortcuts! Sorry… I haven’t found any magic wands, potions, or anything else that takes the place of living life, learning and growing through choices, good and bad, made in this world of ours.

Sometimes it takes years to open up to our personal responsibility of our life’s choices. Those inner wars of emotions, passions, and mind patterns we engage in all too often, define the dramas we grow through. I know, as I have created several soap opera specials in my life that I have had to rescript. Yes, rescript. Once I determined what I needed to see with clarity, then I made the choices to liberate myself from the drama.

We are always a work in progress. The uncertainties of life are ever evolving, however, we have opportunities of choice with how we think, how willing we are to explore new and old concepts, to adapt, learn and grow into a greater dimension of ourselves, so we can be the best we can possible be.

Rediscover that childlike curiosity and enthusiasm for life. Know that you can recognize and accept the richness of your life in any given moment as you are filled with the life force of the Universe. That living life force is the inner beacon of your greatness within, waiting to illuminate not just your path in life, but to be a light for others whose paths you will cross.

Summer is a wonderful time of the year and should be celebrated with enthusiasm. Savor the sunshine, enjoy time with friends and family, visit new places, enjoy some lazy hours of doing nothing, perhaps even taking time to read a new book. Enjoy the moment of now. You’ll be much richer for doing it!

Love, Donna Seebo