Preface to Choices

Preface

 

I could hear my youngest’s voice in my ear. The angst in the tone of his voice

 

 reverberated throughout my entire being summoning my own mommy-angst. He was

 

whining about the difficulty of making a choice. He didn’t want to do it. Most people

 

don’t.

 

At his age, the hard choices weren’t quite so awful. But for grown-ups, it was even harder. Most people didn’t want to make the painful choices. Those choices that could shred your heart and leave gaping wounds in your soul─even if it was to protect another’s soul. What child could understand the concept of making that type of choice. I wondered if even adults could fully grasp the magnitude and repercussions of the choices they made within their own lives.

People want to slather on avoidance and denial like sunscreen. They want to deflect the truth from their skin like UV rays. They want to prevent the truth from being absorbed into their pores where it could travel to their hearts and minds forcing them to make choices they don’t want to make.

My sweet, little boy couldn’t understand why he couldn’t have all the flavors of ice cream listed. He wanted to know why he had to choose just one flavor.

Why, indeed.

I explained to him he needed to pick the one he just couldn’t live without, the one flavor he dreamed about constantly, the one that changed his entire day for the better. Then I watched the peace enter his eyes and travel to his mouth causing his lips to spread wide into his megawatt smile, and I knew he had made his choice. I only wished my choices were so easy to make. I wished mine were so peaceful.