Choices

I am not innately anything,

born as a canvas

on which I adorn my life’s choices,

the writer of the words

I speak,

the artist of my path,

my shoes leaving prints of paint

where I’ve stepped,

my words staining ears,

training my heart to love

or to shame,

owning the power to

smile a good morning

to you.

  –Leanne Rebecca

I saw a post on a friend’s Facebook this morning that simply said “in a world where we can choose to be anything, choose to be kind” and it really struck me. I think this is something many people forget and it includes kindness to yourself too. It’s easy to judge others unfairly for stupid reasons just because we can. It’s easy to focus on our flaws and our stresses, steeped in negativity. It’s hard to be kind when we’ve wired our brains to live in a frenzy, always rushing as we emotionally and physically push people out of our ways to get where we are going. We honk our cars and don’t let others merge in front of us on the highway, but why? It’s hard to choose to patient. It’s hard to choose to smile when nothing seems to be going right. It’s hard to accept other’s differences because they’re foreign to what we know, but we have to try. We have to celebrate one another. We need to make the choice to love, always. Love yourself, love your neighbor, love a stranger.