Choosing...

​What we are all experiencing is similar, how we all process that may be different.  I can tell you that the one word I keep coming back to is choice, the ability to CHOOSE.  Much of that has been taken away over the last 30 days whether that be by Stay-At-Home orders, your employment status, or even fear.  But the flip side to that is we still get to CHOOSE, and by all accounts, that is an incredible blessing. 
 
We get to choose happy, choose our reactions, choose how we spend our time, no matter how limited that may be right now.  And whether you decide to use this time with limited options to Netflix and chill or dive head first into a new learning opportunity, it is still the same.  This entire pandemic event and process that continues to follow it is a minor equalizer in that way. 
 
With that in mind, we are making choices every day on spending, activities, and how to function that may change the way we do things once some semblance of normalcy returns.  And that is where I want to stand on my soap box and offer everyone a cautious pause to focus on what they will CHOOSE. 
 
You get to decide how busy you become, how you nurture your relationships, where you spend your dollars, who you will be, how you will impact the earth, and what you support in your community.  Because for the first time in your lifetime, you were granted a long pause to examine all of this and forced to make different choices on how you do things without the busy chaos of life camouflaging all of that.  
 
As a family, we do a relatively good job at supporting small business, most often choosing to eat at a locally owned establishment, purchasing from other small business for goods, and being careful with things we can reuse and recycle…but could it be better? Yes, and it most certainly is worth the extra time and dollar because in the end, I get more back on both of those and a community in which I want to thrive. 
 
For each of us this may look differently; we all have different likes and dislikes, favorites and pet peeves, but inherently it’s still there.  Do you care about the earth, but do nothing to reduce your footprint because you are too busy?  Do you love seeing a thriving downtown, but purchase at big box vendors because it can save you a dollar? Do you cherish your family, but don’t take the time to reconnect?  I’ll let you in a secret…you will never be less busy, you will never have enough money, you will never have enough time…but if you never follow through on these you will also never run out of excuses. And that, my friends, is a choice.  
 
We get to choose how we exit this pandemic, choose how we react to daily challenges, choose where we allocate all those resources we never have enough of anyway.  And this, in effect, will shape what are lives look like after we seek normal.  This great pause has given me a lot of introspection on my choices, why I choose certain things over others, and how I can do better based on my values and what I care about.  Looking at this with the realization that I have choices makes my lack of control over this situation a little bit easier to swallow, helps me rest in hope for a brighter future, and forces me to pause in all the right places. It may not look pretty at all times, quite frankly it’s like an unmanned circus, but in choosing these things, joy comes more easily even in the midst of all the chaos and will continue long after we move forward individually and as a community. 

---

Stay...In The Moment,