Thursday, December 16, 2021
Choices
From the moment we are conceived, choices are being made about, for, and in our lives. Some of those choices are Big and some are small choices, each one affecting us in ways that set us on the various paths that take us on our journey through this life. On June 25, 1992, a young couple Tiffany and David welcomed a beloved baby boy. Whatever their circumstances at the time they made a choice, a choice to give that tiny boy a chance at life, a life that they would do their best to provide. They named their precious son John or J.D. as he came to be known. Many choices surrounded him as he grew and he did so under the love and care of his mother and father.
You see J.D. was a dreamer; he loved to play video games, be creative, and excel at woodworking. He would chill out listening to his favorite music and show off his best martial arts moves. J.D. had many things he chose to love and do in life including his love of cool swords, cats in all their glory, telling amazing stories, making people laugh, and just living life to its fullest.
Of the choices J.D. made not all of them were the best or made him happy, but there was a choice that made him ecstatic, the choice to bring his wonderful son Alistair into this world and become a father. Becoming a father was such an amazing choice in his life he chose to do it again and bring in his little princess Lorelei into the world to be his favorite daughter. J.D. chose to make these two amazing kids his most valuable treasures. Of all the choices he made spending time and having great fun with these two incredible children were his greatest.
As time goes by through our lives we make some really great choices, choices we don’t always get credit for making, and sometimes we make some pretty bad choices. J.D. was no different than any one of us, He made some good choices, and sometimes he made some bad choices. Every one of us can pinpoint a choice we’ve made that we wish we could take back, yet once a choice is made it can never be taken back, J.D. faced those same choices just like every one of us.
On Monday December 13, 2021, J.D. made a choice for all of us. In that one moment in time, Tiffany and Doug, David and Lisa, you were not given a choice, the choice was made for you, Terry, Barbara and Stella on that day, you were not given a choice, that choice was made for you! Alistair, Lorelei at that moment you were not given a choice, that choice was made for you. You see at that moment only one person made a choice for each and every one of us. Not one of us at that moment in time could have made any choice that would have changed anything about the reason we are mourning now. Because the choice that was made at that moment in time, at that exact second was made by J.D. and J.D. alone, and that choice has broken all our hearts.
Now each one of us who has chosen to live on will now face a lifetime full of many other choices. Many more good and bad choices remain ahead of us. Many of us are choosing to mourn and to grieve, and that choice is okay. Others of us are choosing to be angry or enraged, and that choice is perfectly justified. In fact, we are all justified in choosing how we feel right now, there is no wrong choice on how we feel.
But because it is we who all must live on, and it is each one of us who must make the choices that will take us through the rest of our lives journeys, it is the choices we make now that will set our path, it is the choices we make now that will set the direction our lives will take. We cannot choose to let those feelings of anger expand into resentment and then eventually swell into bitterness. We cannot choose to allow false feelings of guilt and anguish control us. We cannot choose to allow “what if’s” to beat us up. But what we can do is each of us to choose to search our hearts and recognize that we are all human, and that we all make regretful choices, but are just as able to make great choices. I ask of you to begin making those choices, to let forgiveness replace your anger and grace and love replace bitterness. Please, Choose to forgive, choose to love and most of all Choose to Live.
Farewell J.D. you were loved greatly and will be missed fiercely.
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