Go quietly on the path you have chosen

That was the topic for a group discussion I attended tonight.

It was a good talk.

Especially, I was fascinated by how the participants identified with and emphasized different parts of the idea we were examining.

Some were taken by the word “quietly.”

Their path, to date, had been anything BUT quiet. Several exuded a certain sense of pride in that accomplishment. “I came out of the womb screaming, and I’ve not shut my mouth since.” Others expressed a desire to BE quiet — to find solace in mediation and prayer.

Some lamented about “path.”

How can one choose a SINGLE path? How can one choose a path at all? Isn’t the best approach to life to “take it as it comes” and not try to force my will at all? We were tempted to make choice versus non-choice the new topic of conversation… but somehow resisted.

I was one of those who landed on “you have chosen.”

For me, that’s a HUGE realization.

I know who put me here

Wherever I am, whoever I am, I can put the responsibility (and the blame) on others — or I can embrace my freedom to choose.

To claim that I would be happy if only YOU (or she, or it) would change is to deny my personal power. It is to make myself a willing hostage to your every whim.

Moreover, if I have chosen my own path — then I can change the direction I’m headed or the path I’m on.

If people and situations have chosen the path for me… I’m stuck.

How about you?

How’s your path today?

Has life dealt you a terrible hand?

That certainly happens.

[clickToTweet tweet=”The final human freedom: http://bit.ly/1E2DFsV @donsturgill” quote=”Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of human freedoms – to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way (Viktor E. Frankl, Dachau Concentration Camp).”]

Not every path is pretty

Some are born in horrible poverty. Some are mistreated severely. Some are maimed and suffer from maladies you and I can’t comprehend.

I think Dr. Viktor Frankl was on to something when he observed (from the Dachau concentration camp during WWII) that the “final human freedom” is the right to choose our own attitude in any given circumstance.

We can survive anything… if we will to.

We will fail immediately… when we give up.

Whatever your circumstance right now — whatever your pain, your grief, your loneliness, your complaint — don’t stop trying.

Keep going.

Get up.

Get a new plan.

Go at it again.

Choose YOUR path… and walk it “quietly.”