Choices • Shoes • Nail Polish

"Every choice you make has an end result."  ~ Zig Ziglar

This morning I went to the service at the Center for Spiritual Living in Apple Valley.  It was a spur of the moment decision.  I was sitting home watching the service at Agape International Spiritual Center live streamed on the internet and it suddenly occurred to me that I could go be part of an actual, live spiritual community just a few miles from my house.  So I quickly got dressed and headed out. I arrived with time to spare.

The topic was "Choices".  The speaker used shoes as an analogy for choices and how we feel differently when we wear different shoes.  This image helped make her point well.  As she spoke I started imagining how I feel when I wear different shoes, how my attitude changes accordingly. Flip flops, versus hiking boots, versus dress-up heels.  I could feel it.

As my mind wandered, I glanced down at my hands, and my newly painted fingernails.  I'd given myself a manicure the day before because I was going to a party and I wanted to feel my best.  It had been years since I had painted my nails.  Really!  As I looked at them I thought about how it had changed me.  At the party I felt good, I had dressed up, wore a new dress, fixed my hair, put on make-up and painted my nails.  At the party, whenever I looked at my hands and shiny red nails I felt more confident and happy.  They looked pretty, I felt good. Just looking at them changed me.

This memory made me connect with the talk, just like changing shoes, painting my nails was a choice I had made and it changed my attitude and effected the evening and even how I felt about myself.  A simple thing, a simple choice. But it changed my experience. Shoes and nail polish may seem superficial, but the point she made was clear.

It was in that moment that it occurred to me, choice was mine every minute of the day. That's what she was trying to tell us, that just like changing our shoes or painting my nails, the choices I make can set the tone for my life, and how I experience every moment.  It's up to me.  It is amazing power.  A power we forget that we possess at times.

Thankfully today I was called to the service and I heard exactly what I needed to hear.  I was reminded of the power of choice.  It knocked me out of the passive, victim mentality I'd been stuck in for the past few weeks and shook me up.  Just what I needed - a new perspective. Everything I had been living with lately was all my choice.  Each and every day I was making choices that created my experience.  If I had the power to make myself so miserable, I certainly had the power to make myself happy.  It was about being conscious and deliberate. In each moment I have choice.  I can wear a pair of fun sandals that make me feel light, happy and put a bounce in my step, or I can put on a pair of mud encrusted high-top boots that pull me down into the muck.  It's up to me. Simple as that.

So glad I made the choice to go today.

Big love,