Dear Ones –
Many people ask us what is this life made of, free will or destiny? This is a little like asking is it nature or nurture. In both cases, the answer would be: both.

You come into this life with a destiny in mind. You have Things to Accomplish, as set forth in your choices pre-birth. It’s like looking at a menu and saying, “Oh, I will have some trauma and abuse in childhood, with a side of street smarts and a dash of self-awareness, determination and luck. Plus the opportunity to heal my pain and maybe help some others along the way.” Then down the chute you come, and voila! You suddenly realize what a mistake you’ve made! (Just kidding. Well, slightly kidding anyway.) The thing is, it is much harder to live it than it is to choose it or arrange for it and feel confident you can handle it this time. So, this is the destiny part, what you set up prior to this incarnation. And yes, there is an element of free will in the choosing.

Other people’s choices can impact the outcome or the unfolding of your chosen destiny for any given life. This happens in a couple of ways. People decide their thing is more important than your thing (that is, they don’t play fair). Or, people don’t keep their word to each other, and don’t show up to do the work at the appointed time, or they show up and then run away before the karma is complete, that sort of thing. Nothing you can do about their choices, because they, like you, possess free will. If someone runs away, you will both just have to hash it out some other lifetime. Oh well. C’est la vie.

Free will means you don’t have to live out the destiny you chose. Now, one thing about that menu that everyone chooses from – in order to fulfill your commitments as a human being, you will need to eventually have had everything on that menu, even if it is only a taste, like that soggy Brussels sprout from when you were a kid. Everyone dies in every way once. Everyone is every sex and gender and race and class and color and comes from all parts of your globe. Everyone is rich and everyone is poor, everyone is perpetrator and victim, beloved, abandoned, and lost. When you have done all the things on the menu (extensive though it may be) then you graduate to an alternate plane of even more choices and fewer restrictions on your being. So, even though you don’t have to follow through on the destiny you set in place for this lifetime, at some point you will walk through that fire. You may as well do it now, because here you are, and you’ve already done the potty training part. (Think about it. Do you really want to start over again? Helpless baby and all that? There’s a reason babies cry.)

You could say destiny is like saying you will go to the grocery store. So, you go there, but free will says what you will come home with. You might only get what’s on your list. You might have forgotten your list. You might stock up on the cans of soup on sale, because it is your favorite kind, or because it is such a good deal even though you hate tomatoes. You might switch brands of detergent. You might buy cheese puffs, even though you told yourself you wouldn’t. You might not even go back to your home. You could be walking across the parking lot toward your vehicle, with your arms full of purchases and your keys out, and suddenly fling it all up into the air and run the other way. That, dear friends, is free will. Any questions?