Happy Thanksgiving! It is that time of the year when we as a human society in the United States of America use one of our strongest attributes: free will. Free will which gives us the ability to choose how we are going to live our lives, interact with others, and who we are going to see over the next few weeks. It is this ability that plays an important role in our lives, starting particularly with Thanksgiving and continuing on through Christmas and New Years. We all know this, even if we do not consciously think about it, because we use it often. The biggest examples of using our free will are who we are going to visit over this holiday season, to whom we will send cards, what presents we buy, and what our New Year’s resolution is going to be.
So what is the big deal? We have to make choices all the time. Well this time of year there are more choices to make than any other time. This is a constant, year in and year out. Uncle Mike asks you to come over for Thanksgiving dinner, but your favorite Aunt Betty has also asked you. Prime example of a choice. When I reflect on all the choices that we have this time of year, and actually throughout our lives, I come to realize how powerful choices are and, consequently, what we have to endure as humans. Too often I hear people say, “Well, I had no choice!”. The problem with that statement is you always have a choice. Your life is the choice that you have. There are very few times when you have no choice. A baby has the majority of its choices made for them because they cannot function on their own yet. In a catastrophe some choices are taken away from you. These events are very few and very limited, which means the majority of the time it is your choice.
I think people need to spend more of their life consciously looking at some of these choices. Many times in our lives our choices go hand-in-hand with one of the constants of life: change. Change is a powerful thing. It is a life-altering thing. But there is one thing about change that most people do not realize. Even I myself did not come to understand this fact until recently. Change is a choice, an action, that only you as a person can make. You can choose to ask for help, but ultimately the actual changing is only done by conscious choice: your choice. The other constant in this choice of change is that you must change for yourself. Yes, you can have someone or something in mind for why the change is necessary. But you must realize they are simply a small part of the reason you want to attain a certain goal or result. YOU are, and must always be, the main reason for the change.
With this new holiday season starting, always remember and reflect on the power of the choices you make. It is always your choice. Ask yourself: how will it affect your life and others? Sometimes we do not know the answer, but we still must make a choice. And with this in mind, we must make that choice for ourselves.
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