I've referred before to Mike Dooley's book, Manifesting Change. He talks (pp. 151-153) about how, on the path to manifesting joy, you sometimes have to choose among several options, none of which is optimum. And the best path is the "least unattractive" one. That sounds decidedly unsexy, but the last few years this advice has probably saved my life repeatedly. My two major options for Saturday were not Hallelujah Chorus material -- either to go to an unfamiliar city and march/listen to speeches for an unspecified period of time, or to stay in a more familiar, comfortable setting, sing and listen to music, take a walk, and bake cookies. I chose option B. I don't know that it furthered the cause for women, but I hope it did. It felt safer and more beautiful, and after such an unsettled lifetime, making such a choice even for a few hours was even more empowering than marching. But the photographs from cities like New York and LA were thrilling.
It just goes to show that each of us has the power over our lives, at every moment. We really do. We make the choices. To go here, go there, do this, do that. We, or our deeper selves, make the best decision based on our background, our upbringing, the society we live in, our beliefs about people and money, and our values. We have some idea of where we are going and what we want. We may struggle with what people expect of us vs. what we want. Then we take a deep breath, and choose. And then we choose again, over and over again every day. Saturday, I chose to sing. It felt good. I may not be where I ever expected to be, but the future starts today and with the choices I make, today. May "choosing to sing" remain high on my list.
