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Today's
Quotation:
The need to make wise choices
encompasses every area of
our lives. Since we have time for
only a limited amount of
stuff, we need to choose wisely
what stuff we're going
to allow to take up that time. Since
we have only a limited
amount of time to spend with friends
or to engage in leisure
activities, we need to choose our
friends and our activities wisely.
Elaine St. James
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Today's
Meditation:
Sometimes
it's very hard to make choices-- in fact, sometimes it's very
hard even to remind ourselves that we actually do
have choices in the things that we do. It's easy to
get so caught up in the flow of things that we see our
choices as already being made for us. We often see the
idea of choosing something different than what we're
"supposed" to choose as something that would cause
chaos in our lives, an idea that usually isn't true at all.
When
we have time to spend with friends and loved ones, what
kinds of things do we choose to do? Do we choose
things that help our friendship? I know that I've
never liked going to movies with friends, because we
couldn't talk while we were there. It's nice to have
company at movies, of course, but when I have time to spend
with friends I prefer to do things that allow us to
communicate, to share thoughts and ideas.
Sometimes
I may want to do one thing, but I'll see that doing the
other thing is also beneficial to other people. I may
want to spend a weekend doing nothing, but then there would
be no one else available to take the cross-country team to a meet. I
may want to watch a show or a game on TV, but a long walk
with someone I care for is much more important to both of
us.
Elaine
talks about what "we're going to allow to take up that
time." It really is a question of allowing.
Our time is precious. Much of it is used for things
that don't enrich us at all as people, and that's a
shame. Much of that type of time is unavoidable,
especially where work is concerned-- there are certain things
that we have to do, whether we choose to do them or
not. But when we do have a choice, it's important that
we are actually aware of the choices and the potential
benefit of those choices to us and others. Being aware
can help us to enrich our lives and the lives of the people
we care for.
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