Frozen In Decision

Here's a scary story for Halloween.  Every single choice you make matters.

Everything you choose will affect every choice you make down the line.  When you make a choice, you open the door to a hundred other possibilities and, simultaneously, close the door to a hundred other options.  Forget the butterfly whose wings create a thunderstorm.  If you wear a red shirt instead of a blue shirt, you could end the world!  (Because the apprentice scientist in the cosmetology department who is looking out the window on the way to the disposal unit likes red shirts.  She is  distracted and adds the organic herbal supplement to the hazardous material bin instead of the compost pile and voila, mutant zombie chickens are hatched under the sea and propelled through oil rigs back into the ranges were free chickens, um, range.  It's really hard to tell a zombie chicken from an unzombie chicken, so chicken is no longer a staple, and thus chicken soup is no longer available.  There's a mass exodus from earth to escape the common cold; and on the way out, we blow up the planet to destroy the zombie chickens -- even though they don't exist anymore because everyone knows organic based cosmetics don't last more than 24 hours.

All because you wore a red shirt.)

Now, you can choose to throw away all your red shirts, just to make sure this doesn't happen.  And to be on the safe side, don't wear any red clothes.  Ever.  Not even that really awesome number you have safely stored for special occasions.  Nope.  You never know when an apprentice cosmetological scientist might be watching.  But when you're on the rocket heading away from the earth (perhaps pushing the red button yourself) because someone else wore a red shirt, remember this.

Everybody makes choices.  We have to, to get through the day.  There is no way to not make choices.  Even staying frozen to one spot for fear of making the wrong choice is a choice.  There are days we will regret our choices.  Or wish we'd made other ones.  (Cuz that red outfit was REALLY hot!)  But, we live with our choices.  And doors will open, and doors will close.

In the end, all of our choices are the right ones.

Because we made them.

So go on.  Wear the red.  If you choose.

Joining the Team

When you are picked to join your team (work, sports, music, book club), you definitely want to make a good impression on your first day.  So be the best you, you can be.  There is no need to try and do something spectacular, out of the ordinary, bigger than life.  You were picked for this team because of who you are: the skills you have; the things you do; your personality; your way of communicating.

Yes, you were probably also picked for your potential.  But potential is future thing.  It is gained by doing your tasks, every day; and getting better, every day.  Potential is fulfilled with practice and learning and work.

So just take that first step and then the second.  Just like any other day.  Someday, you will do something big and splashy, if that is your role.  And you won't even realize it is big and splashy, because you'll just be doing what you do best, being you.

Elegant and Important Paperwork

This morning a series of events inspired me to sit down and think about this question:  If there were a fire here, what items would I focus on removing from the building?  What would I really hope to save?

Here is the answer I came up with.

• I would hope to save the cat, if he condescends to be found and put in his carrier -- if I can find the carrier.  (There being no other people in the house at the time I was contemplating this, it is logical, not callous, to put the cat first.  He'll take the most time to find and I can dial 911 while searching all his hiding places.)
• I would hope I would be wearing pockets or clothing into which I could tuck my phone after I call emergency services.
• And of course, I would like to get myself safely away from the fire.

So.  Okay.  Wow.  Really?  That's all?

• Well, I would LIKE to get my writing computer out, and any data needed for clients.
• The back up for the big computer would be good to retrieve.  Or even the big computer itself.
• Um.  Maybe a jacket?  Some shoes?  Though if there's time to think about shoes there's probably time to figure out how to put out the fire.  (Though, I was contemplating an electrical fire, and I don't know the safe way to smother those.)

Perhaps grabbing my purse would also be a good thing, for ID purposes.  And car keys.  But I didn't  think about that this morning.  I know who I am.

So.  That's it.  The cat.  The phone.  Hopefully a computer and data.

Everything else is just paperwork we've created to make it all seem elegant and important.  And worthwhile.

Sure, there are memories in items and pictures.  There are priceless artifacts.  There are things made by family, and toys filled with happy vibrations and, heck! books and music that probably can't be replaced in physical form anymore.  There are all the ideas waiting to be fulfilled.

But the memories live inside us.  As does family.  As do the ideas, and the creativity needed to fulfill them.

If I lost my writing computer, I would be devastated.  I would wail and curse myself and carry on.  BUT! I would write on.  Newer.  Different.  And right for the moment.  I can make more runes.  I can add two plus two.  I can reenter data.  And no matter where I go or what I do or who I'm with or the adventures heaped upon me, I have my connections to the Universe and every beloved being in it.

I am not my ID card.  I am not my favorite stuffed unicorn.  I am not even the stories I write.

The only things I need to have hold of when the fires of transformation burn down are my core self, and the knowledge that the cat is fine.

-Lila

Ps: there was no electrical fire.  But flashing lights during a thunderstorm do make one think!