Good Morning, God!
On Sunday, I was going into Kokua Market when I was stopped by this glorious pile of dead blossoms. I LOVE these colors! In fact, I love COLOR. So, I took a photo. The young man that was sweeping them up looked a bit puzzled when I exclaimed over the beauty of the blossoms. But, he smiled.
Then this morning at breakfast, my wonderful husband Kit, asked what my sister, Martha, had died of. Sigh. . . she died of an overdose of Xanax. Bigger sigh! Since she did it on the edge of the Arctic Ocean off Barrow Alaska, it was clearly suicide. But, my heart went back to the bigger question of what really had been the cause.
For the first time, I was able to see that my sister — smart as she was — somehow didn’t have the power to help herself. Helping ourselves involves assessing our choices and then choosing. Both of those steps are “tricky”. Assessing our choices involves having enough HOPE to see possibilities. And then CHOOSING what we CAN do, involves focusing our attention on what we can do. And that means doing a lot of accepting of what we truly cannot do. Accepting means, refusing to drain our energy by regretting what we cannot do.
Choosing to see the beauty in a pile of blossoms being swept up to be thrown away — is a very small kind of choice. At the other end of the spectrum is the man in the Auschwitz concentration camp. Viktor Frankl noticed that he was a long term survivor and asked him how he did it. The man replied: the purpose of this camp is to strip us of the power of choice. So, I exercise the choices I have. If I can eat, I eat. If I can drink, I drink. If I can relieve myself, I do. I if I can stop and rest, I do. If I can sleep, I do. I work at controlling the ON/OFF and IN/OUT choices I have.
Oh my! May we all work at controlling and exercising the choices we have. Especially, as we focus on what will be of help to ourselves. Hmmm, please help ME!
Story teller,
A Moment with God 
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