Everything in life is a choice. That’s a pretty definitive statement, isn’t it? And you might contend that things, often, seem to just happen. An illness, an accident, an unexpected turn of events in your personal or professional life. That’s true. Things do happen that we don’t plan or expect or want to have happen. All of us who have suffered loss of any kind (and I imagine we all have) have also found ourselves wishing that it didn’t happen, that things didn’t turn out the way they did.

Our choice, however, is how we decide to react and how we decide to move forward. That does not mean that we don’t grieve or feel anger or struggle. But, at the point in time that we recognize that we cannot change the situation, we clearly confront a choice although we may not always recognize it right away.

The one thing we always have a choice about is our mindset. We can react with anger, we can be hostile, we can rail against the unfairness or we can accept that this is where we are now and determine what comes next.

With that understanding, that our reactions are within our control and that we can frame, and re-frame our circumstances, comes the opportunity to achieve grace. Grace, to me, means allowing ourselves the full range of emotions that surface and, then, making a conscious choice to move on. Crisis opens the door to opportunity, disappointment can lead to growth, loss offers a fresh look at priorities.

The decision is always ours and grace always within reach if we choose it, if we allow grace to heal and fill our full hearts.