Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Tuesday - The Day of "Karma"

Excerpted from Deepak Chopra's The Seven Spiritual Laws for Parents pg 81

"Tuesday is the day of "Karma"

Today we tell our children "When you make a choice, you change the future."

On Tuesday we agree as parents to do the following things with our children:

1. Talk about some choice they made today
2. Show them how our future was changed by a past choice we made
3. Explain right and wrong in terms of how choices feel."

Hmmm. I was frustrated by today and I think that I know the reason why. When I read this this morning, I read "decisions" - when you make decisions you change the future. And what I was faced with all day is the frustration of relying on other people to make decisions that were out of my control. And I talked to Finn about how my future was changed by a past decision I made - and I equated moving back to the states with the arrival of Finn - the possibility of Family. But of course, since that decision brought up all these memories of extreme challenges that we faced - it was a bittersweet discussion.

If I were to flip my day and think in terms of choice instead of decision, I could see I made a choice to interact with a breakdown at work with grace and compassion instead of anger, I could see that I made a choice to make it a teaching opportunity instead of one of discipline. I would have told Finny that when his Dad and I made the decision to become allies instead of adversaries - regardless of our circumstances - that there was no mistake that there was suddenly room to make our family bigger. And instead of being frustrated about my day yesterday, I could have made the choice to take ownership of my feelings and been fully self-expressed and clear in my expectations.

And honestly - until I re-read this this morning to write this post I wouldn't have made a huge distinction between decision and choice.

Choose love, choose life, choose to get in the game.

Love to you,
Patty

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