The 'Gift to Choose'

The Gift of Choice.
​
I've been reflecting on this subject lately especially after finishing the book, 'The Choice' by Edith Edger. This biography tells the story about her life, surviving the Holocaust, and then becoming a phycologist. Throughout her book she talks about the power of making choices - choosing to survive, choosing to forgive, choosing to live life with intention.

​Edith frequently references another holocaust survivor, Viktor Frankl the author of, 'Man's Search for Meaning." There are countless things I could quote from both of these books about about ability to choose! But one thing that stayed with me from Viktor Frankl's book that Edith also quoted in her book was this;

"Everything can be taken from a man but one thing; the last of the human freedoms-to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way."

We get to choose. We get to choose so much! Edith said, 'Each moment is a choice. No matter how frustrating or boring or constraining or painful or oppressive our experience, we can always choose how we respond.'

There is so much power here, so much that we are in control of.

As a mother with young kids, life can often feel frustrating, constraining, oppressive, and some days even painful - especially when it comes to pursuing my passion for art. The excuses for not creating are endless: there's not enough time, I have to make dinner, the laundry needs to be done, the bathroom needs to be cleaned, another diaper needs to be changed, and the list goes on. But at the end of every day I get to choose if I'm going to let this never-ending list of excuses stop me from following my passion. I get to choose to keep going, to keep creating, or not.

I can choose to be happy about the wonderful opportunity it is to be a mother, and choose to show my children the beauty of art while parenting them. Today, as I sat on the couch with my kids reading, 'The Snowy Day' by Ezra Jack Keats, I did something I have never done before. After reading each page, I asked my children to look at the illustrations and tell me what they noticed about how the artist created the pictures. We talked about shapes, how some of the snow was torn pieces of paper, how there were colors in the snow even though snow is typically white. I noticed details with them that I hadn't recognized before in these beautiful pages of a children's book. When the little boy Peter comes inside to get warm after playing in the snow, there are warm tones all throughout that scene. One of the skies on another page had green swirls in it that I had previously overlooked. My children pointed out the differences of cut paper and torn paper. Together we took an incredible journey exploring how something was made. We chose to notice. I chose to bring art into the forefront of our everyday lives.

​What will you choose today? Despite what is going on in your life can you choose happiness? Can you choose joy? Can you choose to move in a direction that will take you where you want to go?

We all have choices to make that are within our control. I can choose to prioritize my art time in the mornings and evenings instead of viewing myself as a victim of time because I am a mother.

You have choices to make too. What will yours be?

It is a 'Gift to Choose'.