The Heroics of Making A Choice

Just so

I have a choice to make. One that will take my path in another possible direction. At the very least, I will have to rearrange a few things.
 
Isn’t that interesting that we say we are “making” a choice.  Like making a pie or a bed?                    
 
Being that we are meaning makers, this idea of making choices resonates with how we are the writers of our stories; we are the meaning makers of our life.
 
Because, of course we make meaning through our choices.
 
What makes an absorbing read is what choices our heroine or protagonist is confronted with on her adventure. If she goes right . . .  well, she may apparently lose everything.  If she decides to go left, well, she risks  . . .   
 
In my present consideration I could let the choice be made for me. (I guess like letting someone else make my bed, and then lying in it).  What happens when we don’t make a choice? Where a choice is made for us; where not making a choice is making a choice?  In our written stories these choices are great places of conflict and tension. Just as in life.
 
If I wait long enough, the choice will be made for me. I don’t have to really do anything. Wait on the Universe to point the way. However, if I make this choice now, ahead of someone making that choice for me, (like in rejecting a job or an invitation), I do so by following my inner nudging’s.  Just so happens that my inner nudging’s are saying, I don’t think so.  
 
However (and here is a plot twist): I consulted the Tarot cards as a contemplative practice and basically got a “yes.”  Yes, take the opportunity if it is offered to you.
 
But I hesitate. I don’t think I want to move forward with this possibility. But why not wait and see if I am actually offered the opportunity first?  Why jump in and decline the opportunity before it fully presents itself to me? How can I ignore the advice of the cards? Or turn down an offer?
 
Because my body sinks and shrinks a bit when I think of taking this possible offer.
Because I don’t want to sacrifice some other choices I’ve made and intentions I’ve begun on the altar of this possibility.
Because I know there is no right or wrong here, only right and left.
Because I like the risks in the no thank you. I will pass.
Because I want to strengthen this internal muscle of trusting what I know and want. I choose to lean into this rather than that.
 
This then moves me into, having made a choice.
 
Making conscious choices is taking the heroes’  path. So, in our life and written stories, the hero makes conscious choices, where the victims or even protagonist at times will let choices be made for them or risk making a choice by not making one. That’s okay too. We don’t have to be heroic 24-7. Even superwoman takes off her cape and lives in the mundane world.
 
Then there is the contextual reality of the choices presented to us.
 
A neighbor mentioned to me that she felt that people are responsible if they get COVID because of where they choose to live. (They made their bed). “You have chosen a home on a corner lot, in a small village but others have chosen to live in New York City,” she said to me as she nods at my yard. Being that we were social distancing I decided to let the conversation go, for now. However,   -- the reality is that our choices are limited by opportunity. Not everyone has access to the same opportunities.
 
So, within our limits and opportunities, what choices can we make consciously to move our writing and our life forward? 
 
Where is the heroes path from here?
 
 
We have not even to risk the adventure alone
for the heroes of all time have gone before us.
The labyrinth is thoroughly known ...
we have only to follow the thread of the hero path.
And where we had thought to find an abomination
we shall find a God.

And where we had thought to slay another
we shall slay ourselves.
Where we had thought to travel outwards
we shall come to the center of our own existence.
And where we had thought to be alone
we shall be with all the world.”

― Joseph Campbell
 
 
Where is your heroes path?    Write about that.
 
What choices are being made for you? Or have been made for you?
 
What limits are you encountering?
 
What choices are up front in your writing and life?

What is your body telling you?
 
Are you on the heroes path?  Write about that.


Need help being heroic on your writerly path?  Consider this: Sherpa-mentoring & coaching.