Daily Thoughts
6/1/21
Choices. Every morning, I have choices that I can make during the rest of the day. The first and foremost is how I am going to choose to spend that allotment of hours, minutes, and seconds. Do I make the choice to start my day with my daily writing, or do I spend it watching funny videos from my social media feed? Do I choose to have quiet or turn on the TV or radio? Do I choose to concentrate on well-being or what might be physically challenging me that day?
The options that I encounter during the 24-hour period that we call the day on this earth will determine not only how today goes but also how the days of my future will go. Choosing to complete projects frees up my tomorrows for other activities. Choosing to have a positive attitude today makes having a positive attitude tomorrow easier. Choosing to forgive myself and others opens my heart and sends ripples of forgiveness and kindness into my family, coworkers, and community.
As I look back on my 59 years on this planet, I see the ripple effect of choices that I made. The choice that I made to be at the event where I was injured had a direct impact on my immediate family as well as my extended family at the University. Each of us have had to choose between finding the good in what happened almost 39 years ago and allowing what happened to bring us down into fear, depression, anxiety, etc. That was but one event in my life, and the choices that I made that day has affected every other day since. It could have become my primary definition of who I am, yet I have chosen to have it as only a fraction of how I define myself.
From where I sit, I don’t know what options are going to be presented to me today, but whichever choice I make – not choosing is also a choice – I will embrace it and its impact on what else comes my way.
From Where I Sit with Dr. Mark 