Choices and paths

Or should I call this just mid-life crisis?

All through my life, I’ve stated that I don’t regret any choice I made nor any path I took. And deep down I still believe that I shouldn’t regret choices I made. Those choices, and there repercussions made me the man I am today. We learn from every step we take and from every choice we make in life. I will apologize to people who got hurt in the process but I can’t honestly say that I regret the choice, only that (not so) innocent people got hurt in the process.

As I’m reaching the age at which I’m finally allowed to have a midlife crisis, I look back and ponder all the things I’m “missing” because of choices I made in the past.

When I go on social networking websites like hyves, LinkedIn, and face book and I see (old) friends and what they achieved and I ask myself why I didn’t make the same choices. The same is true vice-versa. People see what (little) I have achieved and say they would like it too, without pausing to think about the price I’ve had to and am still paying.

Before we go envying what others have, we should ask ourselves: “Do I want to pay the price they had to pay to get what they have?” I remember the wise words of my late grand-mother: “kada kas tin su krus” (every house has its cross to bear.)

I for one, will choose to have wandered my own path. On the path of life, only our starting point is pre-set. We make our own path by walking (Cantares, Antonio Machado)

If you think that the paths others take influence our own path, you’re quite right. But even then, it up to us, to choose how we react to these changes. Sometimes we choose the easiest road and forget that it’s not always the best road on the long run.

And yes, in the macro-vision of the world, we can’t always directly influence the overall picture of  our life. But I believe in the grassroots principle and in the butterfly effect, whatever we do on a small scale, will eventually influence the big picture. I feel compelled to believe it. Without that belief, life just wouldn’t be worth the effort.

So my dear reader, I challenge you. Go out there and think small in order to make a BIG influence. But think about more than just yourself, don’t forget that your lot is influenced by the lot of people around you.

And if life deals you lemons, you pretty damn better learn to make lemonade.