Of Choices
That which we can make, between imagined options as in a.. “what would I do if …?” or as often has to be made at a virtual crossroad …. “ what do I do now” ……?
Choices may be complex, based on various influences and motivators. In preferences and selections … “Who do I vote for, what profession should I pursue..?” usually involve cognition and instinct having larger ramifications…
…and
Choices may be as simple as what to eat for lunch or what to wear today.
Irrelevant of either, complex or simple, I word my appreciation today (though not of a very simple form) of choices; appreciative more so, of the free will beside. Proffered to our very first fore bearers, of the fruit firmly forbidden, the ‘DO NOT EAT’ has since been forwarded down the line into a ‘to Obey or not to Obey’.
Many have stood as do I, at crossroads every passing minute – it’s the choices they made that I hold in admiration. Some subjects of my high regard –
Abraham – in unquestioned submission to sacrifice his son Isaac as asked of God
Noah – in building the Ark as instructed by God
Moses – in choosing to stand for his fellow Hebrews; and leading them out of Egypt as directed by the Lord
Ruth – in selecting to stay back with her mother-in-law, Naomi
Joseph – in opting to follow God’s ways despite his circumstances and resisting the temptress in Potiphar’s wife
Daniel – his committed preference of being faithful in his worship of God and his determined reverence to kneel only before Him.
-stand stalwarts to a choice – their choice of absolute obedience to the father Almighty. They walked ‘The Road ( hardly) Taken ‘ as written by Robert Frost
The Road Not Taken
Two Roads diverged in a yellow wood
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveller, long I stood
And looked down as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if i should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-
I took the one less travelled by,
And that made all the difference.
