I am me...

As summer fades to fall (my favourite'est of all seasons) I find myself reflecting on the past couple of months and all of the changes... changes externally in my life as well as those internal changes (growth if you will) that happen endlessly.  Some time ago I wrote about a friend's favourite saying "the only constant is change" and time and time again I am reminded of this.  Some things in our lives are constant like family and work and some things are an ever evolving, a constantly changing landscape like relationships and love, friendships and our selves.

I remember reading a poem many, many years ago entitled "My Declaration of Self-Esteem" written by Virginia Satir and one line in it echos in my life... "I own me, therefore I can engineer me"... and this is true dear reader... we all have the ability to create ourselves in the image that we wish... we own our thoughts, our wishes, our desires, our hopes, our dreams, our failures and our successes... and each day we can choose who we are in this world - how we live our life, that is the perhaps the biggest choice of all. 

Life doesn't just "happen" to us, we create it, with our thoughts, our actions, our beliefs.  Many will say that life "throws them curve balls and they have no control" and perhaps life does throw you the odd curve ball that you didn't anticipate or something that was completely unexpected - but still you have the opportunity to choose... choose how you wish to see the situation, choose how you wish to feel about it, process it, absorb it or reject it.  When we instead pity ourselves and say "this isn't fair" or "how come I have such terrible luck" we give up our "power" and it makes us feel small and removes our choices. 

I choose.

I choose to be the person I am every day.  I choose how I live my life.  I choose what I like and don't like.  I choose what I choose and I alone must live with those choices.

Whether they are big choices like work or relationships, or little choices like what to have for dinner they are all MY choices... and I like it that way.  Yes, it means responsibility and accountability for my life, I made/make the choices - but I wouldn't have it any other way. 

This life I call mine... is mine... and in it I choose where I go next, whether that is a big or little choice... the choice is still mine.