Shining Your Light

There are many ways to look at it. Life can be a magnificent, inspiring journey. Or it can be a mundane and fearful journey.

Much of how we see our lives depends on our outlook. And we choose our outlook. We choose which side of the bed to get out of each morning, but the problem is that most of us get out of bed on the default side. And that’s still a choice, even if it's an unconscious choice. The unfortunate result is that we get the default life too.

But what if we actively chose? What if we decided to make just one day exceptional? Scintillating? Magnificent? Miraculous even... Regardless of what the world threw back at us, we'd keep focusing on the magnificent. Just for one day. I'm starting to sound like a 12 step programme! And how bad - it's a powerful model indeed.

I say this from my heart, to anyone who thinks I live in a Pollyanna world: the texture of our lives is created by our outlook. It is not random chance. As Viktor Frankl observed, the one final and ultimate power we have is to choose how we will respond to any given situation.

And by choosing the light, we become the light. And even if darkness falls with alarming regularity in my mood, in my day, or even in my life, I still choose the light.