Chosen

 I awake to a text from a dear friend who has just ended a relationship. The couple seemed destined to spend the rest of their lives together.

But life is more complicated when there are each other's children and previous marriages that didn't work.

The second time requires more care, more awareness, and more courage, even if that courage may hurt. 

The friend, on the morning after, is heartbroken. She's lost a friend, a helper, and a man her children adored.

But she had the courage to end the relationship because she didn't feel "chosen."

If we are not chosen, we must choose ourselves.

I want to choose health. Both physical and mental. In doing so, I can shed the habits, the people, the environment that doesn't support my choice. 

I must deliberately choose the life I live. I must deliberately choose friends, colleagues, and associates. I want to choose the actions that will bring happiness, love, and devotion to sound principles. 

I want my loved ones to feel chosen. I want them to count on me. To know they are my priority. 

I want to choose God and let my actions reflect this choice.

My friend's desire to be chosen may seem nebulous, but it spoke clearly to me. It was a reminder, a warning, an admonition to not only choose wisely but to choose.

And especially to choose ourselves.