Inspiration: A Choice We Must Make Everyday

This larger than life sculpture stands in the Booth Western Museum (boothmuseum.org) in Cartersville, GA. The title of the piece is “He is, They Are” by Glenna Goodacre. It depicts the treatment of Native American Indians as we drove them out of Georgia to Arizona via the trail of tears. For our country this period of history  and our abhorrent treatment of the Indians is shameful. As I pondered this amazing depiction of that time period I could not imagine how this young man must have felt. 

And yet I realize that we are all bound by something in our world…thoughts, sadness, depression, old tapes that play in our head, cruel words or defeated ideas, self imposed limitations…a world of things that limit our ability to be ourselves. Some of those things are deep within our hearts and have planted torturous fictions into our minds that we can never get out. Others are ideas people have given us that we are not good enough or worthy or welcome. And still others that are cancers we have grown ourselves by the thoughts we think about ourselves – self defeating, self loathing, self criticism – and they spread across everything we try to create. All of these bind us up and keep us from exhibiting and giving of our true selves. 

So whether it is self imposed or situation specific, the things that bind us also prepare us for the future. What we experience is the foundation for who we are and what we believe. Our past does not define us, it prepares us for the future. We can choose whether or not the bad limits us or prepares us for success. It can be a weight around our neck or a balloon that lifts us above further defeat. How it impacts us is really our choice, it is our power, it is our gift. Bad things can prepare us for brilliance. Awful cruelty can provide compassion and awareness of how we never want others to feel. Being unwelcome can give us the gift of hospitality so that no one in our presence ever feels unwelcome. By treating the bad as a foundation for learning good we take away the power all the bad in our world holds over our soul. We unwind the bound and allow it to teach us emotional intelligence…and yet it is always a choice. A choice we must make everyday. A choice we must continually make through good and bad. 

So what choice will you make today?