Choices

Lately I have been thinking a lot about the choices we make everyday. From the moment we wake up, we are choosing: Get up or push the snooze button? Eat breakfast or just grab coffee and go?  What do I wear? Take the freeway or surface streets? Etc., etc., etc. All day long, more than we probably notice, we are making choices.

The choice that has been on my mind the most lately is the choice of attitude and my reaction to things. Those are both choices. I choose to be happy or not; I choose to let a hurtful word ruin my day or not; I choose to take part in gossip or not.

Last year, work was extremely stressful; immature co-workers, unresponsive management, and it was just overall frustrating. I would take those stresses home with me or bottle them up until I made myself sick. It was not fun (for Chris either) and hearing that some of my other co-workers felt the same way made me feel worse, not better because nothing was being done. Almost a year ago, I looked at myself and realized that I was choosing to react the way I did and to have the negative attitude I did.

All too often, we are quick to anger and slow to kindness. Quick to frustration and all too often expecting instant gratification. I made a choice last year to be happier, to not take everything so seriously, to come to work and do my job and leave all the bitterness behind, to not let another's unkind words pierce my heart and keep hurtful words from passing my lips.

Honestly, it hasn't been as hard as I thought. Yes, I still get frustrated and upset and hurt sometimes, but for the most part, I am really happy with the choices I'm making. Choosing to enjoy the scenery when I am driving behind a slow driver (it helps that my drive to work is only 5 miles and through farm fields), choosing to not get upset when I break something (after all, it is only a thing), choosing to enjoy life and not get upset when plans change, fall through or not go the way I planned.

I am enjoying the life I have, because as I have learned (all too often in this job), life is short and there is no reason not to enjoy it.

Here is to choosing to enjoy what we have been given and letting everything else go!