Reflection 72 – Our (Very) Limited Choices

For some unknown reason, it’s becoming a habit for me lately to get different ideas for my reflections while laying on my side. During my chest therapy, I must get on my side for almost one hour. Because there is not much to do while being in that position (except thinking and remembering Allah), I sometimes begin writing my reflections visually in my mind before putting it later into writing using my Tobii. So, this reflection is one of those .
Probably this is the first time I realized that our lives are surrounded in some aspects with very limited choices. In fact, we are typically made to think through (social) media that we have full control of our lives. While this applies to some aspects of our lives, it doesn’t apply to others. For example, we were never consulted before arriving in this world. We didn’t choose when to come to this life nor do we know when we will depart. Plus, we don’t get to choose where we will die. We were born in certain cities to specific parents whom we didn’t choose. We also have siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins, and other relatives whom we didn’t choose. Even our own names, we didn‘t get to choose! So, where am I heading with all of this?
These are very simple, yet mostly forgotten, basic facts. All of these things mentioned probably affect our lives in some respects. Many of us might have tense relationships with their parents or at least one of them. There are tons of cases of siblings who don’t talk to each other or have ongoing court cases because of inheritance issues or other matters. Lots of families struggle with various tensions between their members. Even some of us could be bullied in our schools because of our names! Since we don’t have any choices in the mentioned scenarios, we are left with nothing else than patience, acceptance, adaptation, and knowing how to deal in different situations.
So, it turned out to me that patience and acceptance are a crucial part in our lives. It‘s not just when dealing with financial difficulties, loss of a loved one, sickness or other calamities we are inflicted with; rather it‘s an ongoing process we all experience. I think realizing this simple fact and strengthening such a mindset could help us all navigating (peacefully) our life journeys or so I wish .