In the past couple of weeks there have been many things in the spotlight in the news feeds.

The world learned of Robin Williams death, the death of an american journalist and have been subjected to tons of photos of people talking about ALS and a crazy amount of ice water being thrown around in the name of ALS awareness.

There are lots and lots more, but these three are enough for illustration purposes.

With each of the stories I have seen people voicing their opinions about what is happening, their versions of what is happening, there are a lot of positive thoughts and prayers for all people involved and a great number of people that are complaining in one way or another about the way the attention has been given to any one of the stories and in which way people ‘should’ or ‘should not’ be talking about the stories and the issues in involved in the stories. There is a lot of talk about the right to privacy in the people’s lives immediately affected and and also how the families are engaging or not engaging the outside world as the opinions soar.

I may think I have something to say or not say about any of the above. I may think I know what it is all about. I mean, after all, my family has been touched by suicide, I know people that have had family members or people close to them killed and I am well aware of the devastation any type of terminal illness brings on a family.

I have my own perceptions and views. I take away from the stories of others lessons on how I either do or do not want to be now and in the future. If the people involved are close to me in some way I can offer a listening ear, a ride, a meal, some support. I am never in a place to judge the actions, or the thoughts of others.

Tonight at Bolts of Love we had a wonderful presentation in which a life story of both despair, courage, complete darkness and the Light of Divine all shown through the story. Our presenter, Dr. Rebecca Wise, shared that her greatest advantages in dealing with her life and all its incredible ups and downs that have included suicide, murder, adoptions, financial devastation and severe injury to a child was the knowledge that she had a choice to be happy or not. She had the choice to stay open to the signs that Divine was still with her and that she was able to still be guided; as well as having the choice to become and stay angry and wallow in despair and use life circumstances as a shield of excuse to be less.

I think we all have that choice. I think we also have the choice to be aware of what is going on around us, understand it to the best of our ability, maybe even have a particular opinion one way or another and then NOT begrudge or judge another for doing the same thing.

When we remember that we all have a story we remember that we also all have lessons and choices. We are also all able to share those stories and also share the love that is needed for those stories to become a part of the path and not the excuse to not continuing along the path. There will ALWAYS be other stories. How we choose to deal with the story we are in at the present will determine how we are able to handle the next story. They will never cease to come, but they can be navigated easier when we remember that we do indeed have the choice on how we deal with our own story and even how we react or not react to others stories.

I came across the below video recently. It is a gentleman that took the ALS challenge that HAS ALS. He takes some time in the first two minutes of the clip to be what he calls embarrassing to get the attention of those he is speaking with and then takes some time to share his own personal ALS story. I think the most striking thing is that he totally applauds those who are dumping ice on themselves. He is appreciative of both the choice to bring awareness through the challenge and also appreciative of those who have donated funds. He does not discriminate against either choice. Beautiful when I have seen a lot of that as the challenge becomes more and more viral.

I was at a workshop recently and the instructor in reference to a question stated that we all had to understand our own truth. We know our place with Divine, we know our walk, we know our truth, we stand in it, live it and “God Bless Everyone.” Everyone has their own reason for choices. There is no reason to bash each other over this. The best way to share the truth is to live it each and every day, glow in it, shine and truly “God Bless Everyone.”

Everyone has a story