A Life of Choices
The Choice That Is Life
Jane Mullikin

  

We have a lot of choice in what our lives will or will not become.  We have a life to live in order to make one choice.  That choice is an ongoing journey based in love or based in hate or fear.  That choice is ours.  It takes many of us an entire lifetime to pick a race track and make the choice to run that particular race.  Others make it very early and those who make a choice for love live in beauty while those who do not choose love can be exposed to ugliness beyond comprehension.

A life being lived in love and beauty is not necessarily apparent from the exterior.  We cannot look at the next person and determine what kind of life they have by their beauty, their possessions, or their "luck".  We can only know their quality of life if we are given the opportunity to see their soul.  Very rarely does the spirit allow such exposure.

Because of this opportunity (or necessity) to make a choice, depending on how you feel about it, we walk side by side on this earth as strangers.  People living in close proximity, with similar environments, background, and heredity, can be living in very different worlds.  Side-by-side they walk, appearing similar to those they know, yet one has within a black hole filled with turmoil and pain while the other is living with an internal warmth and joy that cannot be adequately described by words.  Those who have not made a solid choice are likely to see glimpses of both worlds without fully understanding the implications until they seriously begin the search for the right track.

We can choose to be guided by that still small voice within.  We can choose to help those around us, gaining our pleasure through seeing their lives enriched.  If we turn selfish and expect to be rewarded for helping, we lose out on the joy of the unselfish gift.  Our lives are not based in love.

We can choose to be proud and to be greedy.  We can choose to manipulate our environment so that riches become ours.  Then we are based in the external world.  That still small voice does not operate in the external world.  This selfish lifestyle can lead us down a road of lies, lust, and into ugliness and despair.

We can live in the spiritual world of love and beauty and still have favor like wealth, fame, and beauty as long as we have not taken them through greedy selfishness.  We can live in the spiritual world of love and beauty when our physical lives are a mess.  If we have faith in the guidance of that still small voice within; if we willingly follow its leading, a most unexplainable sense of joy, serenity, and security abide within us.  We know we are spiritually safe no matter what happens to our perishable bodies.

We accept the concept of the perishable body and the eternal spirit.  This forward looking attitude gives us grace, hope, and power in the knowledge that no matter how difficult the hurdles at the beginning of the race, smooth sailing is ours for eternity.  Smooth sailing through loving, caring, sharing, serving with that constant sense of spiritual joy within.  A joy that continues to expand, never diminishing, throughout eternity.

  


 
quotations - contents - welcome page - obstacles
our current e-zine - the people behind the words - articles and excerpts
Daily Meditations, Year One - Year Two - Year Three - Year Four
     

Sign up for your free daily spiritual or general quotation
~ ~ Sign up for your free daily meditation

   

  
tm

All contents © Living Life Fully, all rights reserved.

   

HOME - contents - Daily Meditations - abundance - acceptance - achievement - action - adversity - advertising - aging - ambition
anger - anticipation - anxiety - apathy - appreciation - arrogance - art - attitude - authenticity - awakening - awareness - awe
balance - beauty - being yourself - beliefs - body - brooding - busyness - caring - celebration - challenges -
change - character
charity - children - choices - Christianity - coincidence - commitment - common sense - community - comparison - compassion
competition - complaining - compliments - compromise - confidence - conformity - conscience - contentment - control - cooperation
courage - covetousness - creativity - crisis - criticism - cruelty -  death - decisions - desire - determination - disappointment
discipline - discouragement - diversity - doubt - dreams - earth - education - ego - emotions - encouragement - enlightenment
enthusiasm - envy - eternity - ethics - example - exercise - experience - failure - faith - fame - family - fate - fathers - fault-finding
fear - feelings - finances - flowers - forgiveness - freedom - friendship - frustration - fun - the future - garden of life - gardening
generosity - gentleness - giving - goals - God - goodness - grace - gratitude - greatness - greed - grief - growing up - guilt - habit
happiness - hatred - healing - health - heart - helpfulness - home - honesty - hope - hospitality - humility - hurry - ideals - identity
idleness  - idolatry - ignorance - illusion - imagination - impatience - individuality - the inner child - inspiration - integrity - intimacy
introspection - intuition - jealousy - journey of life - joy - judgment - karma - kindness - knowledge - language - laughter - laziness
leadership - learning - letting go - life - listening - loneliness - love - lying - magic - marriage - materialism - meanness - meditation
mindfulness - miracles - mistakes - mistrust - moderation - money - mothers - motivation - music - mystery - nature - negative attitude
now - oneness - open-mindedness - opportunity - optimism - pain - parenting - passion - the past - patience - peace - perfectionism
perseverance - perspective - pessimism - play - poetry - positive thoughts - possessions - potential - poverty - power - praise
prayer
- prejudice - pride - principle - problems - progress - prosperity - purpose - reading -recreation - reflection - relationships
religion - reputation - resentment - respect - responsibility - rest - revenge - risk - role models - running - ruts - sadness - safety
seasons of life - self - self-love - self-pity - self-reliance - self-respect selfishness - serving others - shame - silence - simplicity
slowing down - smiles -solitude - sorrow - spirit - stories - strength - stress - stupidity - success - suffering - talent
the tapestry of life - teachers - thoughts - time - today - tolerance - traditions - trees - trust - truth - unfulfilled dreams - values
vanity - virtue - vulnerability - walking - war - wealth - weight issues - wisdom - women - wonder - work - worry - worship
youth - spring - summer - fall - winter - Christmas - Thanksgiving - New Year - America - Zen sayings - articles & excerpts
Native American wisdom - The Law of Attraction - obstacles to living life fully - e-zine archives - quotations contents
our most recent e-zine - Great Thinkers - the people behind the words

  

We have some inspiring and motivational books that may interest you.  Our main way of supporting this site is through the sale of books, either physical copies or digital copies for your Amazon Kindle (including the online reader).  All of the money that we earn through them comes back to the site in one way or another.  Just click on the picture to the left to visit our page of books, both fiction and non-fiction!

   

      
    

Yes, life can be mysterious and confusing--but there's much of life that's actually rather dependable and reliable.  Some principles apply to life in so many different contexts that they can truly be called universal--and learning what they are and how to approach them and use them can teach us some of the most important lessons that we've ever learned.
My doctorate is in Teaching and Learning.  I use it a lot when I teach at school, but I also do my best to apply what I've learned to the life I'm living, and to observe how others live their lives.  What makes them happy or unhappy, stressed or peaceful, selfish or generous, compassionate or arrogant?  In this book, I've done my best to pass on to you what I've learned from people in my life, writers whose works I've read, and stories that I've heard.  Perhaps these principles can be a positive part of your life, too!
Universal Principles of Living Life Fully.  Awareness of these principles can explain a lot and take much of the frustration out of the lives we lead.