In every moment, the power to choose is ours alone.

This probably doesn’t surprise you. I have always been intrigued by the question: “Where does the white go when the snow melts?”

Kind of like the question: “Where is yesterday?”

I celebrate my birthday this week. There are more than a few yesterdays. But they’re all gone.

Today is all there is.

What will we do with today?

It is easy to muddle through, get by, hang in there.  It is easy to do the same thing day after day.  It is hard to constantly level up, play full out, live like there’s no tomorrow. (Because there might not be.)

How ephemeral a day. One melding into another until they are a kaleidoscope of indistinguishable memories.

What happens is this: We are constantly barraged by both the urgent and the important. The urgent screams loudest; we give it its due. But when the day is done, the important has been left by the curb.

We are inundated by emails and voicemails and faxes and Facebook and Twitter. We are driven by other people’s emergencies; the agendas of others rather than our own. We are directed from without rather than from within.

And another day passes us by.

There is such a tendency to sacrifice ourselves on the altar of other people’s demands; to sacrifice our own hopes and dreams for the hopes and dreams of others. It is in the name of selflessness, service and social responsibility. It is noble, we are told.

I say it’s not.

We cannot serve when we are broken and depleted. We cannot help when we are empty. We give our best to the world only when we are whole and happy and filled with joy.

When we choose in favor of what brings us joy, we bring our highest and best selves to the world. Our gifts shine brightly. Everyone is enriched. Everyone wins.

To do this requires exactly that: that we choose.  Hard choices sometimes. Unpopular ones. (But, default means another day bites the dust.)

The mission: to choose what changes up the game in our lives such that we live with courage and audacity and brilliance. The challenge, every day, to choose what is mighty, what is important, what makes a difference.

The challenge, in every moment, to burn with passion. And live with joy.

To choose well.

Will you do this today? Before it’s yesterday?

Photo © 2008 Tim Perdue