It's Always a Choice

Today started out like an ordinary Monday. The alarm went off and my husband and I started in on our morning routine. I decided to stay in and exercise, he decided to go on his morning run. We both take about 30 minutes. I finished exercising, showered, and dressed for the day.

When my husband hadn’t come in from his run yet, I had a sinking suspicion that something had gone wrong. He usually checks the yard and the pool before heading inside, which only takes another 10 minutes, and it was well past that time.

When he came in, I knew right away there was a problem. Sure enough, he found another leak in the backyard. When I followed him outside, he had the wheelbarrow, the shovel, and a nice hole started. He needed me to turn on and off the water so that he could see where the pipe was leaking. This is a common occurrence in our home, and it usually involves lots of work, especially on my husband’s part. And it never happens at the most convenient time. And today was no different. We both had a full day of work ahead, and this was not in our plans.

Now we both had choices to make. Choices about what we wanted to think about this disruption in our morning routine and how we wanted to show up, especially for each other as we dealt with this leak.

Life is just like that. Throwing us off our routines now and again, giving us challenges we weren’t expecting. If we don’t carefully watch our minds, we may default into thinking the situation is a catastrophe, or that the universe is out to get us, again. We may become angry, or discouraged, and show up in a way doesn’t serve us, or others around us, at all.

But what if we were to look at it in another way. What if this disruption was meant to happen the way it was supposed to happen, and nothing had gone wrong?

When we think of these bumps in the road this way, it allows us the freedom to accept it, instead of resisting the reality of the situation. And from that thought, we can create the feeling of calm focus, that will in turn, drive us to look for ways to solve the problem, and move on with our day.

We get to decide what we want to think and how we want to show up every single day. It is all about choices. And that is a beautiful thing!