Painting by Belynda Wilson Thomas

The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another. William James

Have you ever wondered what might have been if you took a different path? Saturday night, I watched a movie, “The Five Year Plan,” a college graduate takes a pregnancy test the night of her graduation. The movie is her two selves and the lives they lead, one having a baby, the other pursuing her dreams. At the end of five years in both scenarios, she’s had her ups and downs. They meet each other in the same bathroom where she’s waiting to see if she’s pregnant. They look at each other and say, “You okay?” They nod, and we know she knows she can handle life however it plays out.

Having faith in the future, knowing we can handle life however it unfolds, is important. There will always be something in life we’d rather not face, and we often hope for something eluding our grasp. If we decide in one direction, we often wonder what would have happened if we’d taken a different path. We can’t go forward without a decision, and learning to make decisions and dealing with what is, creates our life.

In the writing group I’m part of, writers are writing powerful stories. Stories they feel compelled to tell, which I think are the best kinds of stories. We all have stories, and sometimes the stories we feel compelled to tell aren’t our personal story. It’s a story that family members went through. Do we try and tell the truth as we understand it, or can fiction tell the larger story through characters who are a compilation of people who might have lived through the challenging times of the story?

I’ve been absolutely terrified every moment of my life and I’ve never let it keep me from doing a single thing I wanted to do. Georgia O’Keefe

I’ve often wondered how to tell someone else’s story, because so much of what someone thought or did would have to be fiction. Even if I tried to write my own story – using journals, much of it would be fiction because I would make sense of the past by what I know now, and who I’ve become.

If we’ve kept a journal, we have a window into the life we’ve led, but even it, we’ve edited as we wrote. Life can be messy, and if we try to connect the dots looking back over our lives, we aren’t seeing from the same vantage point as when we were living our lives, and making impactful decisions. Some decisions seemed small but had a huge impact, and some seemed big but in the end were insignificant.

Life is full of big and small moments. These moments add up to our lives; my granddaughter’s face lights up when I say good morning. How much poorer my life would be without my grandson and granddaughter. We might choose to have children, but grandchildren are a gift we are given because of someone else’s choices.

Life unfolds, and we have an impact and input in some areas, but others are beyond our control. We need to be able to deal with whatever comes and make the best of what is on offer. Does faith that we will be okay no matter what give us the strength to keep putting one foot in front of the other?

You pray for rain, you gotta deal with the mud too. That’s a part of it. Denzel Washington

Challenges are what make life interesting. Overcoming them is what makes life meaningful. Unknown

I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. Maya Angelou

Thank you for reading this post. Please come back and read more. Have a blessed day filled with gratitude, joy, and love.