The embrace

I remember the day I decided to choose life, it was a long time ago after I'd lost my father, and it seemed an easy choice to make.

I decided to wake up each day and choose happiness and to do and think things that brought me joy.

I decided to be grateful and respectful, to be true to myself and to make sure that the things I put my hand to were done well. I also chose negativity and pain, those things are never avoidable for humans - it's a matter of when not if it will happen. I decided to choose failure as well, frailty and fragility; also things a human can rarely, if ever, avoid completely.

I decided to feel and experience the freedom we all have, freedom which is rooted in the ability to make choices which can result in success and failure, happiness and sadness. I chose life at a time when my father was not able to and I know he would have wanted that for me, he told me so before the end.

I decided to embrace my humanity rather that attempt to hold it at bay in some feeble and warped attempt to be something other than I truly am; human.

I love my life and have created a beautiful existence full of happiness, joy and wonder. I have a relationship with a man who respects me, cares for and honors me, and a life that I believe my father would have called meaningful and been proud of. Choosing life with all its mistakes, false starts, failures and fallibilities also meant that I chose life of joy and happiness, success and it's those things I work towards each day at the same time as accepting that they won't always come.

I embrace all of it because all of it makes up life.

Here's this week's Saturday Selections installment, one of a series of posts in which I share some music I've been listening to. I know you won't like everything I select and that's ok, it's my selection after all.

If you like music and want to share some with the rest of us you're free to do so and maybe you'll even help someone find some music they haven't already discovered. If you wish to use the #saturdayselections tag in the weekend experiences community that's ok too, it's a free space to do as you wish.