Winds of Fate

 But to every mind there openeth,
A way, and way, and away,
A high soul climbs the highway,
And the low soul gropes the low,
And in between on the misty flats,
The rest drift to and fro.

But to every man there openeth,
A high way and a low,
And every mind decideth,
The way his soul shall go.

One ship sails East,
And another West,
By the self-same winds that blow,
'Tis the set of the sails
And not the gales,
That tells the way we go.

Like the winds of the sea
Are the waves of time,
As we journey along through life,
'Tis the set of the soul,
That determines the goal,
And not the calm or the strife.

--Ella Wheeler Wilcox--

In the above  poem we are told that the set of the sails determines the direction the boat takes.  In other words, the boat is controlled by  outside forces.  What about you?  What about your life?  If your  life is not seem going where you want it to, do you blame circumstances outside yourself?  Do you blame the winds of fate?  Oh gosh, do I know I how that can be.  I spent many years blaming others for my unhappiness.  After all, life had dealt me a raw deal, hadn't it?  My childhood was dysfunctional, and because my parents hadn't allowed me any room for growth, the choices I made in life were nothing but a series of mistakes.  If only, I used to say.   I never even thought that the experiences in my life were necessary learning experiences.  It was easier to feel sorry for myself, that my misery was all the fault of others and the bad choices I had made as a result....

... Bad choices? In this, our voyage through this miracle we call life, we all make some bad choices because none of us not perfect. If we had already reached the stage of perfection, there would be no need to incarnate.  We all make mistakes, without which, we would never be able to learn.  Each of us is here to learn about ourselves, others, and life; for some of us, the road is a hard one, while others may have an easier journey. But this doesn't mean they don't make mistakes.  And it certainly doesn't mean that we are bad people.   Good people sometimes make poor decisions and learn from them  We are ALL good people who have chosen to come to this earth plane in order to learn, and the fact is, we only learn through trial and error. And, if we are afraid to take a risk because we are afraid of making a bad choice, then where is the growth. The sailing metaphor is a great one for telling us about our attitudes. Instead of saying 'I can't', ask yourself 'How can I?'

I'm not talking about life-threatening risks like saying "Okay, I'm going to cross this super highway without stopping because I want to see if I can do it."  No, I am talking about those everyday choices.  Suppose you have been looking for work for a long time, and suddenly you receive, within a few hours of each other, two calls with job offers.  One is close to your home with a higher rate of pay, while the other offers more job security.  So, you jump at the job with the higher rate of pay.  But then, when you discover that the amount of money withdrawn for health insurance  at the job is sky high or you discover that your new co-workers have a little clique and you are not included, you become very unhappy and feel you made a bad choice. Or, perhaps you get into a relationship with a man and a couple months into it, you find out he is not the man you thought he was.  

This happens to all of us, but isn't it much better to,  instead of saying that our choices were bad and dwelling on them, categorize our decision by saying that at the time it was the most practical choice. When we place all of the burden upon ourselves...that we feel we've made the wrong choices in life...it just depletes our self-esteem another level. Life is a mere journey through time that has no definitive destination....and, like the winds of the sea, one ship drives east and another west. And, as the Winds of Fate provide us with the opportunity to move forward and to experience the world as it comes to us, we must accept what we've decided throughout your lifetime. There are no good or bad choices. There are only choices.


Good decisions come from experience, and experience comes from bad decisions.  --Author Unknown

(Update:  My garbage was picked up yesterday.  Finally!!!  And I also heard on the news that two sanitation supervisers from Brooklyn were reassigned.)