Our Lives Can Change in an Instant
All it takes is just a second or two in time, and everything can change. Every choice we make, conscious or unconscious, can have the most profound effect on our lives and those of our loved ones. We hear this all the time, but it's strange that the only time it really sinks in is when something actually happens to someone we know and love.
I suppose that is for the best. After all, if we take the time to evaluate the cosmic consequences of every step we take in life, we might become frozen in uncertainty. After all, would going to the post office right NOW avert an accident, or cause one? Will ordering that item from a home based business give them enough money to buy life saving medications for a sick child? Will telling your child they must go to school even when faking sick cause them to be involved in a bus accident? Or will the person you don't say hello to on the street retaliate by shooting you in the head three times and ending your life?
That's essentially what happened to my housekeeper's cousin. I walked into the kitchen this morning and she was on the phone dissolved in tears. She isn't prone to tears. Through the 13 years she's worked for me, there haven't been many instances of this. When I asked her what was wrong, she told me her cousin in Columbia was killed last night. He was shot in the head three times.
I don't know the circumstances of his death. I have no idea why anyone would want to shoot him, what he might have done or not done, where he was, whether he should have been there or not, or what his life would have been had this not happened. None of that truly matters. The fact is, a life was ended in violence, due to the choices that were made by shooter and victim. In the time it takes to squeeze a trigger three times, the fabric of the universe changed, albeit far more profoundly for some than for others.
The idea that the Gods understand these changes of a single thread in this immense and eternally complicated pattern is mind boggling. But, of course, Deity is supposed to be far too complicated and mind boggling for us to have any type of true understanding. It's more than enough for us to try to understand what's going on in our own lives. Unfortunately, we don't have the luxury of taking inordinate amounts of time to over evaluate every move we make. Even if we did, we would likely drive ourselves insane, and miss some of the cosmic lessons our Gods have in store for us for this life, painful as they may be.
Just an instant is all it takes.