The Choices We Make

The choices we make.  How about all the decisions we make every day, whether good or bad.  Are they good or bad?  Or just decisions.  It is not until it is 20, 30, or every 40 years later we realize those choices were maybe not the right decisions.  At lease that is how we feel sometimes.  But then again, maybe they were the right decisions at the time?  We don’t think about it until we are yearning for another life.  But then again, maybe the other possibilities in our life even though may have seemed better for us may have in some way been worse for us.  Those decisions may have steered us to make damaging mistakes or lead us to be in different circumstances that would have been more detrimental for us.

I think of the different jobs I have had.  If I had stayed would it have been better?  When I left was it better?  All I was thinking was this new job is a better opportunity.  I think about all the places I have live.  Each place had it give and takes.  And all the people and the relationships, was one better or worse?  Or did they have their give and takes?  And as for myself; there are changes I made or did not make within myself.

Is the greener pasture better or worse?  Maybe I was meant to live in a different terrain; territory; country?  Be and work with another group of different people.  Have an entirely different life plan?  I cannot know.  None of us can know.  All we have is the present moment.  Looking back is useless unless there was a lesson or love.  All we can do is to make the most of the present moment no matter what the circumstance.  We can make changes only with ourselves and take each day as a gift.  

Hawks Nest Covered in Ice

The enervation of moving stuff

Everything I own is in my little apartment on the East End of Charleston where I live.

My rent has gone up, again. And my landlord has not made any upgrades or improved my apartment. It needs painted, it needs new carpet, it needs newer appliances (refrigerator, stove), it needs more heat, and the bathtub needs reglazing. Obviously, I have been looking for another place to live. But it looks like all the landlords in the valley have upped their rents at the same time.

It’s getting harder to find more affordable apartments these days. My landlord has gone as far as telling me he will be increasing the rent again sometime in the near future.  But in the meantime, I am going through my apartment and decluttering, organizing all the stuff I own. Stuff accumulates while you’re living. Unfortunately, there are things given to me as gifts that I haven’t really used or wanted. I have research notes for writing projects, texts leftover from college, and cards and letters, and candles, and seasonal plates, and my paintings that I haven’t mounted on the walls. It’s sort of sad, really. I play guitar. I have sheet music and recordings, and picks, and…There are my photographs, and negatives in contact sleeves, and stuff to develop photos with…and…tools. I found three hammers in my apartment in different places. What happened? Did I go out and buy a new hammer because I could not find one?  Or borrow one that I forgot to return?

Yes. It is time to move. If for no other reason, just to weed my shelves and drawers and closets. It is time to free myself of possessions I am not using.

I am donating most of my stuff or giving it to someone who would enjoy it much more.

I have a parrot. She is 15 years old. She’s a little Sun Conure. I even have stuff of hers. I rotate her toys within her cage. Consequently, I have stuff in drawers that are filled with her toys and perches. She needs a little decluttering now too.

Next time, I am not moving stuff that I do not need, use, or love. That is just pointless. And believe me, there is a lot of stuff that I have been hanging onto.

Change

There are two types of pain in the world:
pain that hurts you, and the pain that changes you.

How bad does it have to hurt before you change?

Winter at the Capitol Campus

What if we began to treat our Bibles the way we treat our cell phones?

What if we...

carried it with us
everywhere?

turned back to get it if
we forgot it?

checked it for messages
throughout the day?

used it in case of an
emergency?

spent an hour or more using
it each day?

 

It's easy to let days fly by

without taking notice to the

world around you.

Life is beautiful.

Soak it in, think about it.

and be grateful.