Today comes with built in decisions, great and small. The clothes I put on, the road I travel, the people whose lives I touch…in fact, nearly everything in my day depends on how I choose. Today I can choose to carry the blame myself, or to hold out a helping hand…to shout out loud in anger, or to wait ten seconds…to cloud someone’s mind with doubt, or to lift a heart with encouragement.
Today I can choose to count stars or to count mud puddles. When I go to the store, I can choose to see how much there is to buy instead of how much I have to pay. When I get stuck in traffic, I can see, in every other car, a person just as important as me. Today, because I live in a free land, there are a thousand things I can choose: The neighborhood I live in, the friends I laugh with, the work I do, the thoughts I think, the dreams I dare.
And what I will become, in spite of my fears and failures, in spite of the talents I lack, in spite of all the privileges I never had, depends on how I choose to challenge myself today. For I have power, if I choose, to act instead of complaining…to speak out instead of cherishing a hurt…to seek justice instead of getting even…to love the world instead of waiting for the world to embrace me first. What I choose today may well be the cause of my tomorrow. Today…I shall live as I choose.
Let me choose wisely and well…