A Happy, Successful, New Year Medium Writers! Worried About How Your Year Will Pan Out? Don’t! I’m Here To Help. Close Your Eyes, Trust, And Choose.

Will it be the red pill, or the blue? Go on! Choose. Thank You. Now the future is in your hands. Or can it possibly be that simple?

I was talking to my husband about the butterfly effect (chaos theory) only today.

On the night we met, I almost didn’t go out. I had something more pressing to do. But my friend urged me to go to a musical event, where he just happened to be singing.

I made sure I went back the next week!

One year later we were married.

That wasn’t in my grand plan

My grand plan was to go back home to Scotland the next year. Had I done that, our daughter would not be in the world today, and I may, (or may not), have married the guy I left behind (just for two years!), while I checked out Australia.

Also, our rainbow babies would not even be ‘what if’ thoughts in our minds either.

One little decision to stay, and not return to my birthplace, impacted on others in ways I simply cannot trace.

I will never know.

I am not privy to seeing.

And neither are you!

We tend to think

…that big happenings are the things that change the world, like the events of 9/11, the Hiroshima bombings, or the recent atrocities in Afghanistan.

But maybe that is not so.

Chaos theory suggests that it’s the little things, those seemingly innocuous happenings that fly under the radar, that can and do change the trajectory of the world. “A butterfly flaps its wings in the Amazonian jungle, and subsequently a storm ravages half of Europe.”

One decision by me, and my husband, mapped out how things are for not only us, but for any decisions we made, and interactions we had with others.

We are not alone.

We never were.

Every single choice we make in life, or every single choice we make to even do nothing, significantly affects not only the rest of our lives, but that of others too.

Though we like to think there is control, that we personally command our lives, the realty is otherwise.

Every breath, every thought, every small decision we make, has ramifications that we can’t even speculate on.

So what does that mean for us writers?

Is it worth writing at all, given that we can’t determine to benefit from it?

If we could not write tomorrow, why should we write today?

The short answer is this. Even if you were to stop writing after today, for whatever reason, your thoughts to date could change others in ways you could not even speculate.

So that very thought challenges us to be bold.

To take risks.

To say what we want to say, now, for the time is now. Tomorrow’s dawn may not come.

Knowing this, challenges us not to be afraid.

And to write in the moment.

To accept that we are not in control. We never were.

You may be reading this simply because you have the day off, and have time.

Or you may be in a coffee shop waiting patiently for your coffee to arrive.

That coffee may never arrive.

It didn’t arrive for the people waiting in the Lindt Cafe. The lawyer who just ducked into the cafe thought she’d be going home to her family.

Her family too, expected her home.

See even when you are standing in line, seemingly doing nothing, some things ARE happening.

That is a hard fact that none of us can ever escape…that things happening.

While Anthony and Marite were reflecting on their good fortune, disaster struck…

When Anthony Maslin (Maz) and his wife Marite said goodbye to their three children, Mo, Evie, and Otis, and the children’s grandfather, it was with the understanding that they would meet up two days later. They had just enjoyed a wonderful holiday together.

“That afternoon, they cycled through the famous Vondlepark and Maz marvelled at their good fortune.

“We sat there on this beautiful balcony looking out over the lake, having a drink, and I remember saying to Rin, ‘You know that it just doesn’t get any better than this, the last couple of weeks have been phenomenal,’ he says.”

Less than a day later, their world ended.

The flight MH17 was shot down, and all aboard were killed.

Their lives were subsequently changed forever.

Things can happen in just one day…one split second

When we stop to appreciate the factors that can determine just one day, it’s easy to better appreciate the tenuous nature of life.

As a writer, you may have made copious notes on an article you intended to write today.

You woke up, checked into Medium, and that’s one reason you are reading my thoughts.

But it could have been otherwise

The storm that ripped through Canberra last night, uprooted many trees, and tore down power lines. One split second, being in the optimal spot, and someone’s life could have ended.

Life could have been over for one person…or more.

Change happens.

We do not control change.

So that challenges us to be bold

To say what we want to say without fear or favor. To write as if it were our last day on earth.

So trust, and act.

Be brave and daring.

Be yourself.

Cause ripples that will challenge others to respond.

Cause hurricanes if you must. If a small butterfly, without a voice, can cause such mayhem, why not you?

Who are you to be retiring?

Make fabulous choices whilst ever you can.

The time is NOW.

This year belongs to you.

What will you choose?

How will you choose?

What are you waiting for?