The moment of choice

Until we fully accept that our choices create the ills of our world, we will not be able to fully transform them.

Dear friends: We are experiencing such challenging times, and so much calls to us to be done. Please rest as much as you can, for your health is necessary to our world.

Deep thanks to those who took the time to respond to the last post. One theme that emerged was the importance of recognizing the moment of choice we can create with our awareness of our patterned reactions.

Poverty, war, violence, inequity, environmental degradation: these are policy choices, not essential conditions of the human experience.

Until we fully accept that our choices contribute to these conditions, we will not be able to fully transform them.

Every day, we engage in behaviors that reinforce the aspects of society we claim to want to change. We buy the cheapest goods manufactured under inhumane conditions. We toss into the garbage vast amounts of edible food and containers that will persist in landfills for centuries. We squander precious water to irrigate purely decorative lawns that also require poisons to stay “green.” We accept the notion that incarceration should be a for-profit endeavor. We escalate our outrage and target it at “others.” We vote for individuals who promise easy answers, more money, less burden, as long as we agree that those “others” are our enemies. We focus on the small and neglect the systemic.

Much of this semi-conscious behavior can be changed with relative ease, with minimal loss of comfort and convenience, simply by recognizing that we can choose. Other aspects require significant effort, and systemic change; but still begin with the awareness of choice.

It is so easy to allow ourselves to believe that our own behavior is the inevitable result of our situations: “But I have to…” “But of course I can’t…” “I don’t have the option to…” And yet we persist in our conviction that the behavior of others is entirely driven by their personalities and choices: “They are so…” “They deserve…” “They need to…”

My friends, whether it is violence, war, conflict, loneliness, anger, fear, poverty, inequity, or environmental damage, our healing and transformation begins in the moment of stepping back, becoming aware, softening our hearts, and focusing the power of our imaginations and attentions on our common humanity.

There is nothing inevitable about our lives except the experience of change.

Shared with gratitude for your company in this ever-changing adventure of living.