Dark Writes

Fate, destiny, luck, circumstance… what determines your future? Do you wake every morning and actively decide to do the same things you did yesterday? Do you do these things, somehow expecting a different result by the time your aching body climbs back into its pit?

“I am the master of my fate and the captain of my destiny,” said Nelson Mandela. Remembered around the world as a symbol of peace and freedom, Mandela wasn’t averse to bloody violence before his incarceration. Indeed, he remained on the USA’s terrorist watch list until 2008. He freely admitted he wasn’t as saint, but thanks to his passion for doing something, he became almost God-like in his influence.

To leave our destiny to fate seems a cruel and unusual punishment to inflict on ourselves. To throw up our hands and raise faces to the heavens, uttering phrases like, “it just wasn’t meant to be” or “it is what it is” is a shameful act of self-loathing, the likes of which no other species on Earth subjects itself to.

Does the rabbit, on failing to find any dandelions on its morning expedition, throw its tiny paws in the air and think ‘oh well, I wasn’t meant to have a dandelion today’? Or does he rather make the same trip out of his warm burrow at dusk to again seek his favourite snack, no less enthusiastic than before? I think you know the answer.

Blaming fate or some unseen external force for your bad luck in life is not just a poor excuse; it’s a travesty. There is only one thing in control of your future, and that’s you. If our choices direct us to disaster, ruin, pain or even death, who are we to shake our fists at the invisible monster of fate?

Our choices define us, like it or not. Every choice you make creates a fork in the path of your life. Like many roads, life’s path has cut-throughs, diversions, dead ends and back alleys. Getting back on the previous path is usually an option, somewhere. Most choices can be reversed. Notable exceptions are in decisions relating to abortion and suicide – please, never take those lightly.

The important think is, like Nelson, to do something. It doesn’t have to be the right thing; it doesn’t have to be the scary thing; it doesn’t even have to be the thing that other people want you to do, believe it or not. You are the master of your destiny, but without taking a leap into the unknown from time to time, your destiny may lie unfulfilled.

Do something. Do nothing. But do it because you choose to.