To Choose is To Renounce

To live we must choose a life, a commitment. We must move from a series of disconnected experiences to a way of life with all its hopes and disappointments. That choice can come to us in a variety of ways: an inner voice, aptitudes, skills, gifts; or what brings us joy or where we find our creativity most exposed.

But this is a path less travelled, for it is our path. But to choose this path is to renounce other possible paths. Perhaps this is one reason why the psychological age of youth with its exploration of possibilities stretches well beyond chronological youth now. There are so many alternatives that might be taken up, which to choose? To choose one might close down others, so choosing one is postponed. But, funnily enough, life itself is postponed. As Jesus said, to choose life will always bring some death with it.