March 30, 2009

• Choices Not Our Own

  Fate plays a funny hand in life.  I believe that in life, our personal choices are what ultimately determine the courses that our lives take…however – call Him God or just coincidence – something else works in our favor…then again, perhaps the choices of others, really make the difference.

  A girl – renamed “Michelle” – had her baby this past Saturday.  Michelle is nineteen, and the baby’s father – renamed ”Lee” - is the man for whom she rejected C.  Yet, how easily the father could have been C…a few dates interrupted by Lee (Michelle’s boyfriend), that uprooted any relationship developing with C and Michelle…and then there was me, too, not helping her cause… 

  I wasn’t ever supposed to have met C.  My friend found the advertisement for this camp under a load of papers on an unused school bulletin board…her parents wouldn’t let her go unless I accompanied her, so being good friends, I agreed.  C himself wasn’t intending on going either; his reason for attending had to do with Michelle, actually…

  But we did meet.  We stayed in close contact – both making the decision and the effort to keep in touch, daily.  I began to trust him, to love him.  And I made the choice to go after this boy I had met by chance.  I was relentless, and his sights turned from Michelle to me.  Michelle then returned to Lee, got pregnant, lived happily(?) ever after…

  All of our actions – by Michelle, Lee, C, and me – have formed the relationships in which we share today.  If Lee hadn’t pursued Michelle, she would have stayed with C; if she had stayed with C, he would not have attended the camp (at least without her); if he hadn’t attended, he would have never met me, never dated me.  Then again, had Keli not insisted on my attendance, had I not gone, had I not made the effort; I would have never dated him, either…

  So many choices that determine our life, are never really made by us…

  …but, our own decisions are what finalize our fate…

  Confusing subject matter.  But, something to consider, something to appreciate, something to meditate on, perhaps?

  I do wonder.

  Do such small things determine entire futures?  The futures of not just me, but my children, grandchildren?

   

   

  M

  • 10:06 pm
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