Paths

"To know what you prefer instead of humbly saying Amen to what the world tells you ought to prefer, is to have kept your soul alive." - Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894)

It's hard to forge your own path sometimes. But life has shown me lately that it is indeed worthwhile, though not always easy. OK, it's never easy. I have been making choices lately on what I want, what I think is best for me and the kids. Admittedly, I have made a couple of choices in my life that were soul wrenching and not what I wanted, but what I knew had to be done. Not popular with others or myself in some regard, but what was right. I see now how those choices are proving fruitful and I feel stronger than I have in a long time. It's empowering on my path to find and maintain balance in my life. I have good examples to gleen from too. I see friends making their own choices, chasing their own stars be them great or humble. And I see that joy in their lives for choices well made. So I look to my life now and my choices with that positive 'ME' attitude. The kids are better for it, I can see it. And that is the greatest reward of them all. And maybe, just maybe, their paths will be easier if I lead by my own example. I can only hope.

A friend of mine said it very well once when we were in the mountains of NH looking out over the landscape - the difference is in the looking in before looking out. My mind's eye has that image in my head and my heart holds onto those words because it just makes so much simple sense.