Choices or Chances....which team do you belong to?

“What really interests me is whether God had any choice in the creation of the world.”

- Albert Einstein

With the recent rains, the weather had cooled down a bit lately. Seeing that the day was less of a scorcher, I ventured out and had a much needed "me" time with a lovely friend of mine. The delicious chicken wrap that she produced in a jiffy was awesome, but even more so, just chilling out with her worked wonders for my sagging spirits. More chicken soup for the soul :) On the drive back, I happened to glance at a church's billboard which had Jean Nidetch's ( the founder of Weight Watchers) famous quote "It's choice--not chance--that determines your destiny." The words brought a wry and bitter smile to my face.

How many of us have had the luxury to make choices and take control of our lives? Does anyone remember the days when we applied for seats in professional colleges back in India? I certainly don't remember having had choices - even the most brilliant of the minds had sat there at the mercy of the selection board of the universities hoping that the odds would be in their favour to land an admission in the colleges, never mind the course he or she wanted. Most of us had signed away our rights to choices and instead allowed ourselves to be swept away by the opportunities that came our way first - the first campus recruitment company that hired us, the first alliance that worked out, the first promotion in deciding our career and so on.

And indeed this has been the case with me - I had always let others play a predominant role in shaping my destiny, starting with my educational degree, marriage and career. I had settled in for whatever came my way first - and lately I am forced to realise that this no longer works. The work became a mere job - not a vocation, and life, perhaps more of a survival than living to the fullest. I believe you can truly say you have lived your life only when you are given the liberty of making choices. Perhaps if we had chosen the path we are travelling, maybe we would learn to stick to it and make things work when the going get tough, instead of being tempted to choose the easy way out and giving it all up at the slightest signs of trouble.

I am afraid I would be slipping back into the evil old ways ( after a brief respite of making choices the last couple of years) of allowing chances dictate my life once again. Would I be giving up on my dreams of working in the non-profit sector or having a flexible job to accomodate the needs of my children? Would I again be cornered into giving up on doing what I would love to do and instead take up the first job that comes my way to make ends meet? With every passing day, I seem to reach out blindly to what life offers me.......sadly, from experience, I have found that compromise only leaves a bitter aftertaste.

Isn't the ultimate purpose of life to have a life with a purpose?