Choosing Life

When it comes to politics it's safe to say I don't know a whole lot. I don't understand every issue that comes up in political debates. To be honest I don't always care to know everything. Maybe that makes me less of an American citizen, though I would hope not. Because the few things I do feel strongly about I try to make the best decision to vote for the person who will full fill my hopes for those things. In other words I would vote for a person over a party. A moral and decent person is more important to me then smooth words or an impressive resume.

One of those things I feel strongly about is the issue of Pro-Life vs. Pro-Choice. I have always been in favor of Pro-Life. Perhaps it is my Christian upbringing, or my inability to hurt anything or anyone, or perhaps I am extrememly sensitive. Whatever the deep seeded reasons I cannot understand why anyone who had a life growing inside of them could choose to end that life. People rationalize that it's only a "fetus" and that it is not a person yet and you are not ending any life just removing tissue. This is not true. I don't care how you put it or how scientific you want to become, the issue is that this is a potential human being that has been created and by "removing it" you are ending something prematurely. That something is called life.

There was a movie made recently called October Baby. It's a story of a girl that discovers she is the product of a failed abortion. She finds out all of this during her freshmen year of college. The story is remarkable of how this girl learns to deal with the lies she has been told her whole life and also how she learns to love herself after knowing she wasn't wanted. She also learns to forgive. Forgive her parents for not telling her the truth, forgive her birth mother for not wanting her, and forgive herself for the hatred she feels towards herself.

It's a beautiful story about the life of a girl who wasn't supposed to live. It makes you realize that you never know what potential a life could have.

What is even more interesting is during the end credits the actress who plays the birth mother tells how she did have an abortion and how she has carried guilt with her for years. She tells that how during one scene the tears she was crying were real and how she was finally able to forgive herself for everything she has felt for years.

The one thing that I loved about this movie is that even though it was clearly Pro-Life it didn't condem those who had chosen abortion. There was a line from the movie where a character said, "You hate the crime not the criminal." Meaning that we should still love those who hurt us or who choose a wrong path even if we don't agree with that choice.

A beautiful song plays during the end credits that mentioned all the small things that a person experiences in life that make up the bigger picture. I listened to it and thought about all those little things that I have felt and done and how beautiful even my fairly boring regular life is. It makes me wonder why anyone would be selfish enough to choose abortion over giving life. No matter how inconvienient a child may be during your life at that time, you should never let a life be prematurely ended especially when so many couples try to have a child and can't.

Life is beautiful and wonderful and precious. Each person has so much potential and so much that they will do and see and live. I wish that people could see that and stop the whole practice of abortion.

What We Make of It

"The life of every man is a diary in which he means to write one story, and writes another; and his humblest hour is when he compares the volume as it is with what he vowed to make it." -Sir James Matthew Barrie

On occasion I stop and think about my life. I think of the things I've done, the things I haven't done, and the things I wished I'd done. At times I realize what I thought I would do, is so far from what I have actually done. Sometimes I think of the things I have done and marvel that I never thought of them before.

I often ponder if I had known back then what I know now, would things have been different? Of coarse they would. But how would I have known the things that I know now if I hadn't had the experiences back then?

I may not be very old, at twenty-three I certainly can't claim great wisdom. However I can say I have learned a thing or two in the last two decades. The first is this: Life is what we make of it. Be that good or bad. You can plan and hope and dream and work hard, but in the end some things will happen that you did not plan. Now you can either be angry with this or you can learn to accept it graciously. 

The second thing I have learned is to not have regrets. I have made choices and done things that hindsight twenty-twenty I would probably not have done. I might have made different choices. If given the chance to go back I probably would have chosen different paths.  But had I not made the choices I made I would have not learned the things I have learned, therefore not becoming the person I am today. The person I am is not perfect and not spectacular, but I accept the person I am and do not regret anything that made me this person. 

Which leads to my last thing I have learned: Accept the person you are. You may not be the brightest, the most beautiful, the most talented, or the most athletic. But you are you. And as Dr. Seuss  once put it, "Today you are you, that is truer then true. There is no one alive who is youer then you!"Be glad you are you. You can always improve what you are, but don't change who you are. It's important to realize that the person you are is far more important then what you wish you could have been. Because the person you are is the person who you are going to be forever, and it's time you realize that you are special in your own unique way. Be proud of what you have accomplished, and don't be afraid to become even better. Just make sure you stay true to who you truly are. Don't lose the real you to the world around you. The world wants us all to be a certain way. But that is petty and small minded of them. What a horrid place this world would be with out all the diversity of it's people. 

Life throws us curve balls and we have to learn how to work with what we have. But don't wallow in the lost life you thought you would have, instead appreciate the things that made you the stunning person you are today. Because you are special. When you step out of your house each day and face the sometimes cruel world around you, just remember that you are becoming an even better person with each choice and decision you make.  

The Magic of Reading

"It is important," the man in the grey suit interrupts. "someone needs to tell those tales. When the battles are fought and won and lost, when the pirates find the treasures and the dragons eat their foes for breakfast with a nice cup of Lapsang souchong, someone needs to tell their bits of overlapping narrative. There's magic in that. It's in the listener, and for each and every ear it will be different, and it will affect them in ways they can never predict. From the mundane to the profound. You may tell a tale that takes up residence in someone's soul, becomes their blood and self and purpose. That tale will move them and drive them and who knows what they might do because of it..."(381)

The above quote was taken from a wonderful book I just finished that is truly a gem. The Night Circus is a book that not only is unique and creative, but magical and mysterious. I am an avid reader. I can always be found with a book on my nightstand and with any free time available most likely I will be curled up with a book. I gravitate more towards the fantasy genre, but I do also have a love for historical fiction, dystopian, romance, and some science fiction.

In our world today I have noticed many of my friends and colleagues who do not read, or if they do it is very little. They spend any extra time at night watching various reality shows or dramas on TV. While I do applaud the writing of some TV shows, a large majority of them are silly, stupid, and quite frankly not worth people's time.  TV does not allow an environment for the imagination to grow and develop.

Reading is like a mini-vacation. For an hour or two you can be in a different land fighting a dragon, or a century in the past attending a fancy ball, or perhaps a land in the future fighting for control over an oppressive government. You can be someone else doing things you would never do in your everyday life. Reading gives you endless possibilities.

In books magic is real and tangible. In this latest book I read the author gives you the hint that perhaps magic is real and it is only because we choose not to see it that we believe it is not. This is what I love about reading. To me a story is magical. I am transformed into the character I am reading about and I can witness things that my everyday life would never allow me to see.

For those that know me one of my favorite things is to walk into a book store. The second I enter I am greeted with the smell of new books and in some stores fresh brewed coffee. I love to walk down the isles touching glossy covers and opening books to fresh unread pages. I love turning those pages and scanning the words wondering what exciting new story is contained between the front and back covers. What new world has yet to be explored and new foes to be vanquished. Then after looking at all the new books I want to read I locate the books I have read before. Old friends that I have gone back to year after year. The books where I have memorized entire paragraphs and have favorite chapters that I re-read when I don't have the time to read the entire story. It's a magical experience for me and one that I never tire of.

Thanks to this modern world of technology books are even more available. We have many electronic devices that can hold an entire library. I myself own a Kindle. I love it and take it with me when ever I am traveling. However there is something to be said about the actual physical turning of a page. Many of my favorite books I own in the print form. These books I treasure. They remind me of that first magical time I read that story.

More then anything I want people to know about this world of reading! I want them to feel the wonder and magic that a book can bring! So for one night don't turn on the TV and watch whatever silly show that is on. Instead pick up a book and see what story is contained within the pages. You may be surprised by what you discover! If you need a suggestion of what to read, try The Night Circus. I promise you won't be disappointed!