We choose our thoughts. We choose our perceptions. We choose our attitudes. We may not think so. We may not believe it, but we do….I’ve seen through evidence, time after time, tragedy after tragedy. Triumph after triumph. It’s about choice. – Louise Penny, Still Life.
One of the wonderful things about reading is no matter how good or bad a book, I can always find a few nuggets amongst the story and plot. Louise Penny’s Still Life is her first novel in a series about Inspector Gamache, a little village in Canada called Three Pines, and murder. The Inspector is talking to a young apprentice when he comes forth about “choice.” In the context that he says when he is observing, he is watching the choices people make. Who they talk to, where they sit, what they say, and how we say it. He says our life “becomes defined by the choices we make.”
Now I don’t necessarily agree with what he says literally. We don’t have a choice about our DNA, our race, our gender, our sexual preferences, how we are raised, etc., but at some point the choices we make with those basics do define who we are, and I certainly believe how we choose to deal with certain events in our life especially earlier bad choices says a lot about ourselves.
A suggestion this morning might be to take a few moments to “observe” oneself. Listen to what you say and how you say it. Watch where you sit and who you talk to, and ask yourself what choices do I have today. It is a lesson in awareness and wisdom.
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