I remember one day walking to the bus stop. Sweat was dripping down my chin while I gazed upon the half tilted, faded metal bus stop sign a block away.

I saw an unorganized huddle of bodies. A few were singing email to their smart pads. A few sat on a wooden bench, staring out the hazy plexiglas of the bus stop awning. I checked my watch and noticed I was running ahead of schedule. The bus still shouldn’t be coming for at least five more minutes.

At that same instant, I heard the sound of the big tires rolling up behind me—the punched in sound of a clutch cranking into the floor, the shaking of windows as the tires dipped into a small pothole. I quickly turned my head and saw the bus rolling up behind me. There was no traffic to slow it down. I’m about a block away and frozen stuck between two fateful options.

The first is to stand there and surrender my fate to the universe. I can repeat to myself, “Oh well. I guess the universe didn’t want me to catch the bus today.”  Regurgitating that famous cliché phrase, “I guess it just wasn’t meant to happen.”

The second option before me was to take my bag, hold onto it a bit tighter, and start running up the block. This option wouldn’t guarantee that I caught the bus, but it engaged my free will so that it did not have to breathe in the exhaust of resignation.

Contemplation on choice is sometimes the toughest part of any day.

The universe definitely provided some context here to make it a bit harder for me to catch the bus, yet still, I can act now to change the situation. Sure that bus came ahead of schedule, but my reaction is in my control and what my yoga practice has taught me. My reaction could be to blame it on the universe, to fall into the trap of, “I guess it wasn’t meant to happen.“ Or, the other decision: lift my feet, pick up my heels, and start running.

Each moment of life we set into motion a series of succeeding moments that will ultimately shape our future. It is our choice to leave destiny up to the universe; or, we can choose to shift our awareness and embrace the knowledge that We are the universe. 

When this happens, what we previously blame on an outside entity, or “destiny” is actually something we understand as within us.

The choice is mine. The choice is yours.  The choice is ours.

We can make all the excuses you want, but in the end destiny is choice.

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Author: HawaH

Editor: Renée Picard

Photo: courtesy of the author