Hello! I trust you had a Happy Love & Friendship Day AKA Valentine's Day. It is always a day for me to reflect upon the relationships in my life and to send greetings to dear ones. I am grateful to have such folks in my life.

As you probably know, I do not practice nor endorse any organized religion. And, due to my background, I can still be a bit wary to read words of people of the cloth. That said, I recently came upon the blog of Michael K. Marsh - don't ask me how - who is a priest of the Episcopal Church serving in the Diocese of West Texas; he practiced law for fifteen years before going to seminary. He strives to live contemplatively with silence, stillness, and solitude and to base all that he does and is in a life of prayer and study. I appreciated his writing very much and now subscribe to his blog.

A recent topic he blogged about was the choices we make. Many of us label our choices as 'right' or 'wrong'. Yet even when we know a choice was right, it may have left us feeling empty, like something was missing. Despite getting what we wanted, what we chose, our life was not enriched, made full and vibrant the way we thought it would be. Instead it felt diminished and impoverished.

Such experiences tell us there is something more. Michael concludes that there is really only one choice to be made: the choice between life and death. It is both the ultimate choice and the ultimate criteria for making all other choices.

"Is what we choose to think, say, or do life-giving? Does it sustain, nurture, and grow life for ourselves or another? Or does it destroy, diminish, or deny life? Does it leave us bereft of life? Does it impoverish life for ourselves or another?"

We make the choice between life and death in so many ways every day of our lives. We make that choice in the ways we choose to see and look at ourselves and others. It's in our thoughts. It's in the words we speak as well as the things we have done and left undone. So what if we intentionally chose life in every decision we made?

To read the full blog post, visit Interrupting the Silence.

If you'd like to share your thoughts or an experience regarding this, I'd be delighted to hear, so email me.