MARIE'S MUSES

“The greatest gift that God in His bounty made in creation, and the most conformable to His goodness, and that which He prizes the most, was the freedom of the will, with which the creatures with intelligence, they all and they alone, were and are endowed.” ~Dante Alighieri , The Divine Comedy, “Paradiso”, vs. 19

Life is full of choices. Sometimes we make good ones and sometimes we make bad ones, but there are always ones to make and they are always our own to make. When we make good and wise choices, the end result is usually a positive one, for all actions have consequences. When we make bad choices, then usually we reap negative benefits, and sometimes very long reaching consequences. Often we get in the way of other people’s poor choices, which is unfortunate. Such as times when someone decides to squeeze their car into a too small parking space next to our car and just happens to scrape the side of our car on their way in, and then again on their way out when they see what they have done and go to find another place to hide their mistake, or just leave altogether. (this has happened to us twice now, very frustrating) Not fair, I know, but it’s unfortunately the price we pay for having free will, and the freedom to choose for ourselves.

I reckon it’s a beautiful gift from God, the right to choose, and it’s not something I would relish living without.

When I wake up in the morning I can choose to get up right away or to languish under the covers and doze for a bit longer. Being the early bird that I am, I always choose to get up right away. There’s so much of the day ahead to explore and experience, and I don’t want to miss a minute of it! That means that by the end of the day my energy is definitely flagging and I fall asleep in front of the telly more often than not, but, my oh my, I’ve usually had a full and rewarding day up to that point.

When I go to do something, either for myself or for others, I can choose to do the very best that I know how to do, or I can be lazy and only do a half job of it. Experience has shown me that any job worth doing, is worth doing to the best of my ability, for anything less than my best has consequences that I am just not willing to live with , and usually just creates more work for me in the long run anyways.

I can choose to look at the glass as half empty or as half full. I choose to always look at it as being half full. That way I don’t miss out on any of the blessings and un-expected pleasures along the way. Being positive has never cost me anything, but it surely has given me a great many benefits and rewards in return.

I can choose to put only good things into my body, such as healthy fruits, vegetables, lean meats and whole grain breads and cereals, or I can fill it up with junk food and empty calories. We all know that the first choice is the better choice, for how many of us are having to now reap the benefits of having made the wrong choice and are now struggling to take off all those extra pounds or suffering the consequences of poor choices such as ill health, high blood pressure, etc. Experience once again has taught me that that extra piece of pie, or bag of crisps is not really worth the price I will have to pay in the long run for the short term pleasure I get.

Today I can choose to be happy, or I can choose to be sad. For me, I choose to be happy. Into each life, rain does and must fall. I am no different than anyone else. I have my own fair share of disappointments and heart aches. Life has it’s ups and downs. Despair and sadness touches each one of us at one time or another. The difference is all in how we choose to handle it. We can give in to it, and let it conquer us, or we can choose to rise above it and come out the victor in the end. The choice is ours to make. Each cloud does have a silver lining and we can find it, if we only look. There will be some lesson learned, some hidden blessing discovered. Sometimes God’s greatest answers come in what we see as unanswered prayers, and sometimes we learn more from losing than we ever would have from winning.

I made Todd a lovely fish pie for his dinner on Saturday night. It’s a dish he surely loves and I am quite fond of it myself. Jess always prances around the kitchen when she smells it cooking, for she knows that even she is in for a treat! (we always share the good stuff with Jess)

This is a wonderful and homey supper dish. Lovely tender pieces of fish in a deliciously rich sauce, topped with savourypotatoes and cheese. What’s not to like about this!