Choices

Every day we have the power to make some pretty powerful choices:

Speak or act with harmful intentions and trouble will follow you OR
Speak or act with good intentions and happiness will follow you

One evening, as I let our dogs out into the yard, there was a commotion followed by a strong chemical odor followed by the appearance (proceeded by their stench) of three newly skunked dogs. They chose to act agressively towards another animal and they paid for it. For 3 months.

Maebe, our lone female dog has a practice involving enticing neighborhood children to our fence so that they will throw a ball for her. She runs up to the fence with a ball in her mouth, pushes it through the fence slats, and sits patiently, waiting for the child to pick it up and throw it. She is filled with peace and joy and I believe the children respond to this as they invariably pick up the ball and throw it to her.

Get caught up in the injustices and indignities of every day life OR
Let go of your anger and live in peace

I bike to work pretty regularly. About a year ago, I was scolded by a fellow biker for breaking a traffic rule. My first reaction was to get mad, thinking that this guy was a self-righteous prick. I had fantasies that he would hit a pothole and fall into oncoming traffic. This caused me a fair amount of anguish for a number of reasons. First, of course I wouldn't really want that to happen, and so I then felt regret. Second, he was right in his message, even if I didn't appreciate thedelivery. I made a choice to let go of the anger I was feeling and instead focus on the message, which was "bike safely". This instantly lifted the negative feelings and I actually came to appreciate that moment.

Spend your time and energy pursuing things that don't matter OR
Spend your time and energy pursuing things that bring real joy and happiness

For years I pestered my wife for a Nintendo wii. It was going to change our lives. The games allowed you to be "active" during times when you would normally veg out in front of the television.  The technology was new and exciting and when wii fit came out, that was the clincher. Now we can exercise all the time indoors. Last holiday season, I finally got my way. We did indeed enjoy the wii at first. A turning point was when I got my first "wii injury." You know, pulling something pretending to play a sport instead of actually playing it. I realized that as a fit and active person, it was more rewarding to do real exercise and participate in real activities. I thought I was solving the problem of what to do as an alternative to watching tv, but what I really did was find a different way to spend time in front of the television. What we ended up doing is turning off the tv all together and focusing on things that matter to us. That brought real joy and happiness and hasn't caused injury yet.  We still use the wii on occasion, and we still can enjoy it, but it wasn't the be-all end all and I think that it is almost always the case that the right action when you really want something is to wait it out.

In conculsion, the choice is our's, we just need to be aware and to act according to our values.