Tag: life choices

The Broken Bridge and the Road Less Traveled: A Lesson in Courageous Healing

Have you ever found yourself facing a life-or-death decision where the voices of the world insist there’s only one way forward—but your heart whispers, “There must be another way”?

Years ago, I shared a question that caught people off guard. I asked: “Would you rent a car to drive across the country, knowing there was only a 10% chance you’d reach your destination… and that if you didn’t make it, it would cost you your life? And what if that rental car costs more than you’d earn in an entire year? Would you still take the trip?”

Most people paused… they squirmed… some laughed nervously. Few said yes.

The truth? Every day, people take that exact gamble—with their lives.

When diagnosed with a life-threatening illness, many are told that the only path to healing is one filled with toxic chemicals and burning rays, systems that boast success rates far below 10%, depending on which studies you read. And yet, fear grips them.

They mortgage their homes, drain their savings, and put their bodies through hell, chasing a sliver of hope across a broken bridge that history says most will fall from.

Why?

Because that’s what the voices of authority told them to do.
Because that’s what’s been done before.
Because they were too afraid to look for another way.

The Parable of the Broken Bridge

Picture this:

A weary traveler stands before a crumbling bridge stretching over a great canyon. On the other side lies the city of Healing—a place of restoration, peace, and hope. The bridge’s builders promise, “Trust us. This is your only way across. Pay your fee, step onto the bridge, and pray you don’t fall.”

“How many have made it across?” the traveler asks.

“A few,” they admit. “But don’t think about that. Focus on the chance that you might be the lucky one.”

But the traveler notices something else: Quiet trails meander off into the forest below. They’re not as obvious. They require more work. Fewer signs point the way. But those who have walked them speak of beauty along the journey, healing in each step, and guides who walk beside them.

Now the traveler must decide:
1) Take the broken bridge because it’s what everyone says to do? Or 2) listen to the still, small voice within—and follow a path that feels guided by something greater?

The Real Question

The real question isn’t about bridges or rental cars, it’s about how you respond when life throws you its greatest challenge.

      • Will you blindly follow the crowd down a path of fear?
      • Or will you pause, breathe, and listen for the higher call guiding you to something better?

Yes, the world will tell you that alternative paths are foolish, dangerous, or unproven. But many of the world’s greatest breakthroughs came from people who dared to take a different road, from those who said, “There has to be more than this.”

A New Way of Asking the Question

So, let me ask it this way:

If your life was on the line, would you risk everything on a method that has failed most before you, simply because it’s popular—
or would you take a leap of faith and seek a path of healing, wholeness, and alignment with the life force that created you in the first place?

No one can make that choice for you, but your heart knows the answer.

What Most People Miss

Most people forget that healing is not only physical. True healing involves your mind, your soul, and your spirit. You were designed for healing. Your body knows how to heal. But your soul must give it permission. If your healing path leaves you hopeless, fearful, and depleted—then maybe that path isn’t your healing after all.

There are many ways across the canyon. Some involve medicine, some involve faith, some involve nature, and some involve surrender, but none of them require blind obedience to a broken system.

So today, I invite you to pause, turn down the noise, and listen.

Ask yourself: “What feels like truth to my soul?”

Not what your doctor says.
Not what your family says.
Not what society says.
But what your soul says.

Your life is too precious to gamble on broken bridges.

The Love of God, the Universe, the Source—or whatever name you call it— did not put you here to be a victim of fear. You are here to learn, grow, love, and, yes, heal. Your journey may not look like anyone else’s, but it is yours, and it is sacred.

Dare to take the road less traveled.

You might just find the healing you were searching for was already inside you all along.

 

The Path of Least Resistance

We all have choices to make every day, and this ability to make daily decisions gives us a sense of freedom and control over our lives.

You get to a stoplight, and you get to decide, “Do I take the shortcut or the scenic route?” You put your underpants on most days first, but if you wanted to take a step on the wild side, you could put your socks on first. You get to decide what television programming you’d like to watch and what political party you most align yourself with.

Most of us get to decide what clothes to wear (and if you’re like me, this can be a crippling decision when you look at a closet full of clothes and can’t find anything to wear).

When our decision-making accountability grows and the stakes run higher, our choices come with challenges and consequences. In times like these, we often lean to the path of least resistance.

When you hear your inner voice calling out to you, reminding you that you were meant for so much more in this life, you know that if you were to listen to it and take action on it, there is a very good chance that you would face unknown challenges, requiring more of an investment from you, than would be expected from working your “normal” job.

Not answering the call is safe, the path of least resistance, and you have nothing to lose because you have not put yourself at risk.

You don’t have to worry about your friends telling you that you’re foolish to chase after your dreams and that doing so would be ridiculous because you’re not worthy. And if you were to proceed to live the life you were destined to live, the naysayers are waiting in the wings, waiting for any misstep you might make, ready to say, “I love you, man, but I told you so. You better get out now before it gets any worse.”

A lot of fear keeps people just like you and me from attempting to embrace my or your highest and best fully.

So, you keep your nose down, moving forward, going through the motions while denying your own divinity and having the life you were meant to live.

Still, something within you resonates and you know, regardless of what other people might say, that you can live a better life, your best life, and make the world a better place.

You have heard people say, just find happiness in what you have, give all you can in service to others, don’t expect too much in return, and if you can do that, you can get your reward in the afterlife.

What do you think about the idea that every moment you do not make a stand for your own divine independence, you deny the sanctity of your sacred birthright?

Every moment you do not make a stand for your own divine independence, you deny the sanctity of your sacred birthright.

Your birthright consists of your coming to this planet with talents, skills, and special abilities to help make the world a better place. You have a unique calling, purpose, and message that are unique to you and your life experience. You have been chosen to deliver this message.

Your birthright includes living an excellent life and enjoying all the good things this life has to offer joyously in all its fullness. So, think about these things, and go forth in inspired action to make your dreams come true because your dreams would never have occurred to you if they were to be withheld from you by any set of circumstances, anyone, or anything.

The battle is on for your soul. Society would like to dictate that you settle for mediocrity and succumb to a life of servitude to the machine from which the chosen-few profit immensely while the rest of the world’s inhabitants wrestle in the mud over the spoils.

And every day that you give in to those who would take advantage of you, the ones that use and abuse you, those who give you empty words of encouragement to get you to perform like a circus monkey for their amusement and profit, every precious moment you live in compromise, your dream fades.

To win the battle for your soul, you must stop settling for this life of slavery and imprisonment is a system that profits from your life, while you get so extraordinarily little in return for your efforts.

You can turn the scales.

You already know that your life is the result of the choices you make. One look at the life all around you will substantiate this so clearly.

To change your world, you must start making decisions that have an impact on your life. Start making hard choices that are not considered the path of least resistance. The path of least resistance leads to complacency, a dispassionate life, a boatload of regrets, and an early grave.

Don’t get me wrong, going with the flow is great if the flow of your stream is headed to the land of plenty, but if it is headed some dark elsewhere, you must exert the effort necessary to change your destination.

Stop letting others dictate your destiny. You need to get behind the wheel of your life. It means taking the wheel from whoever’s doing the driving now, whether it be your parents, teachers, boss, or overbearing spouse. These people have no right to minimize your right to choose for yourself.

Avoid the path of least resistance. Make the difficult choices and take full responsibility for your quality of life.

It’s time for you to take your life back if you are willing and able to step up your game and take full responsibility for your future, your future home, your financial outlook, all the things your heart desires, and your ability to give back and make the world a better place.

 

 

You can’t want for someone more than they want for themselves

You can’t want for someone more than they want for themselves. You’ve been around people you cared about to varying degrees, people who you just knew if they would embrace this little insight or piece of wisdom from you, their life would be much greater, healthier, more satisfying, and they would be genuinely happy.

You’re so sure this one little change would change everything for the better for them.

Would you do it? In a heartbeat. In fact, you may have already done it, and seen the rewards that came from it. You can care about a person so much, see the bright future which is waiting for them, if they could only take this step in a new direction, but they cannot see it or will not do it, even if it means saving their own life.

Yesterday, I lost a friend, who passed on, well… by choice.

She, and others whom I’ve cared deeply about, continued to make life choices which led to their leaving this planet’s third dimension, in my opinion, prematurely. Its as if they willed their early departure.

I would talk to them, reason with them, and eventually, once I understood that they understood what I was trying to tell them, continue to love and bless them as I watched them continue down a path that I would have regretted, had it been me walking in their shoes.

You can’t want for someone more than they want for themselves, even if thier own lives hang in the balance.

When I was younger, I saw people I cared for making choices that would greatly affect their lives when they were older. While they may have suffered the consequences of their action in their youth, rarely did it cost them their lives.

Back then, they were more likely to suffer a decrease in their quality of life. Most of them found ways to feel as though they were thriving in the bed(s) they had made for themselves. I continued to bless and love them, as our lives grew further and further apart.

Now, that I am older, many of the people I love and care about are older, and their choices have far greater impact, and the price to pay may be their very lives. And I see it more and more, all around me.

People dying for no good reason

I realize the divinity in all things. I know that my path not your path, as similar or as dissimilar as our paths might be. I honor your ability to follow any path you choose and hope that you can have the same respect for me and mine, no judgment, only blessings and love.

Even so, every once and a while, you can want something so badly for someone else who just will not make that little change to their life which would change everything, not only their life but exponentially the lives of others, even the whole world.

You can’t want for someone more than they want for themselves.

A few weeks ago, I was with a friend when he suffered a heart attack, shortly after he’s arrived at the hospital. I was with him when the doctor can in and advised him to check in for further testing. He was also advised not to leave the hospital because he might not survive another attack of this type.

My friend refused to stay in the hospital and not to submit himself for further testing to determine the intricacies of the issues concerning his heart. He told the doctor that he would take holistic responsibility for his own health care management.

I expected the doctor to protest, to plead a case for obtaining more information about my friend’s heart condition, but the doctor got up and said, “You take as much time as you need to think about this, then you are free to leave. If you change your mind, just press that button and a nurse will be here to help you get ready.”

At first, I thought the doctor had very little decorum, then after my shock resided, I realized the doctor’s wisdom and respect for my friend, honoring him and empowering him to be the master of his own fate.

Duly noted.

Once you’ve made yourself clear in love, without judgment, ridicule, disrespect, or sarcasm, and they choose to do it their own way, you must love and respect them for their decision. As much as you might want for them this thing which would result in so much good for themselves, their family, friends, circle of influence, and even the world, you cannot want it more than they want it for themselves.

I mean, you can want this thing, whatever it is, more than they want it for themselves, but to continually bring it up for them, to rub their nose in it, or browbeat them with your ideas which are contrary to their views, ideals, and decisions, is nothing short of abuse.

Simply make your views known in a non-threatening manner then love and bless them as they do with it what they may. Their life is their sacred journey. Honor it, no matter where it leads.

You can still harbor your feelings that they could do better, continue to meditate on their behalf, or pray for them, but know this is thier life not yours. They cannot do anything wrong, for their journey is perfect, in every way, just the way it is.

Sure, they may protest periodically, even blame you for some of their life’s discomfort, and chances are, you have done the same thing when things became challenging in your life. So challenging in your life, that you thought you’d barely escape with your life intact, but you made it.

At times in your life, people have advised you to do this or that, to go this way or go that way, but you decided to make your own way, and suffer the consequences or reap the rewards for doing so.

Why would you dishonor anyone’s ability to do the same no matter what the outcome?

I know, your response is,

“But if it were me”
or,
“If I could do it all over again…”

It is perfectly admirable for you to share the insights gained from your experience with others, but their journey is not yours.

In regard to giving advice, my friend, Edward, says, “Some will. Some won’t. Next.” In a sense, saying to share your stories and experiences with them, then let go of any expectation that they might take any of your advice at all.

No, “Only ifs…”

Good friends are hard to come by, and it’s hard to watch them leave.

I miss my friend. Wish she was still here.

I know she is happier now. I celebrate the time that we spent together and share her joy in the hereafter.

Still, a part of me is sorrowful.

This, too, shall pass, as love and joy overshadow my selfish sadness.

Loved, blessed, and missed nonetheless.