Choices

I've been writing the last entry in my current paper journal and I thought it would be good to start with a review of where I had got to during the ten weeks or so that I was using it. (I choose to write three pages every day to ensure that I get a good run at my issues without hiding too many of them.) I started off as a narrative, but, very soon I realised that I needed advice.

So, I switched to a more powerful mode, dialogue. Often, wee find that we can give advice to someone else when they face problems. The difficulty we have is giving the same advice to ourselves. We are so close to the issue that we can't see the wood for the trees, as it were. The dialogue device helps us to separate ourselves from the issue and give ourselves the advice we would give someone else in the same situation.

Not that I advocate giving anyone advice, as you will see later. But, we all need a counsellor at some time. We need someone to listen and to ask the right questions. The dialogue device allows us to listen to ourselves and to ask those questions of ourselves. We need to be careful not to maintain "two personalities," of course. Yet the availability of another, more creative part of our minds can help us to sort through our issues.

I started to look at such an issue. I wanted to explore where I have come from, as well as where I am going. I wanted to look at what I want to achieve during the two or three months it will take me to fill my next journal. So, I discussed with my "companion counsellor" what I have achieved and where I am going. I picked up an issue that I will face; a decision I will be making. It isn't a big issue, really, but it could have big consequences. So, I asked myself what I should do. How should I proceed? The answer I gave myself stunned me a little.

I said, "But, Mike. It's your choice!"