Pathwalking 51
Given natural disasters, mass murders and other tragedies, it is easy to question how anyone can believe they have control over anything.
It can be terrifying to see how fragile our lives are. It takes so little to break a body and snuff out a life force. I suppose it is that randomness, that nonsensical disillusionment that causes a person to turn to religion for solace. Since it seems that control is but an illusion, if you give it over to a higher power, then you have an explanation.
While I do believe in some form of a ‘higher power’, I do not believe that it controls our destinies. You can call it God, Allah, Gaia, the Powers-that-be, the Almighty, the Oversoul, or what-have-you. We each have free will, we each have our own ways of thinking and doing things. We are still capable of choosing our own paths.
So what? you might question. Innocent bystanders and children murdered in cold blood didn’t choose to be victims. Why does the choice matter?
There are two inescapable truths for every single one of us. The first is that we cannot choose our blood relatives. The second is that our lifespan is finite. This body is designed to grow, to change, to age, and eventually to die.
We can do something about that first inescapable truth. We can choose to create families. We can choose how we relate to people, and how close we hold them. And while we can do all sorts of things to prolong and hold off the second truth, these bodies we live in will die.
Some people are so focused on that fact, and so deeply terrified of it, they neglect to live. And I am not just talking about eating, sleeping, breathing – I mean living. Learning. Exploring. Taking an occasional risk. Experimenting outside of comfort zones. Making conscious choices.
Despite our choices, despite our goals and our dreams, we cannot control random happenstance. But if we focus on the infinite possibilities of how our lives will end, we miss out on opportunities to enjoy some pretty incredible things. Sights, sounds, smells, feelings, the possibilities of these things are more endless and more interesting than the inevitability of our eventual deaths.
Pathwalking is about making choices. Not all the paths we will choose will work out. Not all of them will be right. Some may not even be good. But we choose a path, and we walk it to see where it might take us. We choose, as such, to live life, rather than let life live us.
It seems illogical in the extreme that someone would choose to take such a horrific path as to get a gun and go shoot up a mall or a classroom. How can someone strap a bomb to themselves and go blow up a marketplace? It is disturbing, it is sick, it is disheartening. It is frightening, and it seems utterly surreal. This was someone’s choice?
How desperate, how hopeless, how angry, how lost must a person feel to do something like that? Taking your own life is one thing…but taking the lives of others, innocents, that’s just unjustifiable. And it is tragic on so very many levels.
Pathwalkers choose paths not only to better ourselves, but I believe we choose paths to also better those around us. If I am a better-adjusted, more content person, even a happier person, doesn’t that radiate out to the people around me? I’d like to think so.
Bad things happen to good people. It is unfortunate, it can be horrifically tragic, but it is inescapable. However, rather than let fear of such things cause us to not make choices, we need to individually do what we can to live as full a life as possible. I am choosing my own path, I am working to feel better and more confident about myself as a person. And I am doing what I can to share this journey, in the hopes that doing so might help others struggling with the same thing.
If you have not done so lately – tell the people in your life how grateful you are for them. Tell those you love that you love them, too.
I have done some pretty amazing things with my life thus far. I have done some less-than-spectacular things with my life as well. But I choose to live the best life I can. I am a Pathwalker. Good days, bad days, I am grateful for my life, and put forth all the necessary intent to make it the best one I can.
Do you live in fear of how your life will end, or live the best you can each day?
This is the fifty-first entry in my series. These weekly posts are specifically about walking along the path of life, and my desire to make a difference in this world along the way. Thank you for joining me.
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