Episode 137 - The Trials of Life

The Thursday Thesis – 7/2/2019

Think of a trial – what do you think of?

For me it’s a judge in a wig looking over his spectacles at the accused; his gavel is poised, ready to pass judgement.

That might be a product of watching Crown Court when I was a nipper – ITV’s weekday afternoon dramatisation of the court process and fictionalised cases.

Words really mess you up, don’t they?

“The Trials of Life” conjures the oak panelled courtroom and the red robes, the seriousness of everything. As a cliché, it passes under the semantic radar for years – and it did for me, too. But a little while back it blipped: naturally I did nothing about it, but it kept on blipping and the noise was driving me mad.

Ping, Ping, Pingitty-Ping!

A friend of mine said that we all faced The Trials of Life, and it was normal to feel as pissed-off about certain things as I was at the time.

So I was on trial – seemingly for my very life. This was not good.

So I started buggering-about with other words (inside my own head, of course – don’t want to get  carted-off to the funny farm for thinking differently or anything).

What might be less crushing than being on trial?

To cut to the chase, I sort of settled on Choices.

Yes, The Choices of Life – that felt better than being on trial. No bloke in a robe and wig, dry language and wavering gavel.

Just Choices.

So whatever happened with my life’s biggest challenge to date, I had a choice.

Rethinking it as a choice gave me the power - all of a sudden - to control the result. One word booted me from the victim in a soulless sytem to master of my own fate: it all span on a single word in a worn-out phrase.

Everything is a choice.

How we feel, how we talk, think, feel, and how we pass through the world and how we make people feel; how we will be remembered – everything is a choice.

Whether we fall or rise, love or hate, repel or attract: everything is a choice. We each make the choices that shape and sculpt our own future.

Choose well.

If your choice is flawed and doesn’t work out the way you wanted you get to choose again because this is not a one-shot deal.

Day in, day out, you choose.

If what you are currently doing isn’t giving you the kind of life, health, relationship and future you want, it’s time to consider your choices.

We each have the power to choose, but we don’t use that power very much.

So, what are you choosing that doesn’t help you?

What are you waiting to begin?

What would you choose?

And fundamentally, who are you choosing to be?
 
© Neil Cowmeadow 2019
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