1,2,3

A few things on my mind :)

1. A.
"...even so I desire that ye should 

stand fast in this liberty wherewith 

ye have been made free, 

and that ye trust no man to be a king over you..."

Mosiah 23:13

B. 

I have a teacher right now who frequently says, 

"The person responsible for the decision must be the one to make the decision."

I've been thinking about these ideas a lot. 

And ya know? Realizing this has made making decisions easier.
(Though not in matters of choosing restaurants, activities, movies, etc. I'm not sure I will ever become more decisive in those areas ha!)

Owning my responsibility makes decisions less scary somehow.

Yeah...if I make the call, the consequences land on my shoulders for better or for worse...and certainly I should be open to all good advice and inspiration that come my way...

but lately, I guess, I've just again been really struck by the power we have to create our own lives.

Lots of things we can't control. Lot's of things we can.

People can choose.

2. I'm pursuing a career based around the idea that we can always be better. I'm part of a religion that celebrates this same idea.

I'm also privy to
-A world where statistics indicate how we will all generally end up.
-Research that says people exposed to certain conditions will turn out certain ways.
-Advertisements calculated to make us respond in specific ways.
-Wise advice that says people change here and there, but in general they are who they are, and we shouldn't be disappointed or too hopeful that they'll be different someday.

None of those things are necessarily bad.

But, building upon the first conclusion I have come to (people can choose), I've realized all of our predispositions and circumstances may influence who we are, but they certainly don't dictate that.

Because people can choose,
People can change. 

3. When I shadowed an OT in the pediatric hospital last semester, he was constantly saying things like this to clients:
"This is hard, huh? But that's ok, cuz you can do hard things, right?"

Right!

Decisions aren't always easy. Change isn't always easy. But

People can do hard things.

:) :)