In her first Chief Inspector Gamache mystery, Still Life, Louise Penny introduces a theme which will recur in her subsequent mysteries. In a conversation with the Chief Inspector, Myrna says, “We’re the only ones who can change our lives, turn them around.” (Still Live, p. 140) Ultimately, it is the choices that we make that control our destiny.
Myrna was a psychologist in Montreal before moving to Three Pines, where she now has a bookstore that at least one person in the community thinks is a lending library. What caused her to move and to change professions was a result of her losing sympathy with her patients, one in particular. She had been seeing him for three years. Every week he would come in with the same story. Myrna finally came to the conclusion he was not going to change because he did not want to. Myrna tells Gamache, many people love their problems because the problems give them all sorts of excuses for their circumstances.
Not only were Myrna’s patients faced with the decision to change or not, so was Myrna. She could have continued as a psychologist seeing people who really did not want to change or she could change. Continuing would have given her a good living, provided security and have been totally unfulfilling. Unlike her patients, Myrna made the decision to change. She moved from Montreal with a population of more than 4,200,000 people to a very small town that was not on most maps. She went from the job security of a psychologist, to the uncertainty of running a bookstore.
Change is never easy. It always involves moving from the known to the unknown. For many a bad situation, what is known is more acceptable than a potentially better situation that is unknown. The story of the Exodus might be described as a journey from the known of bondage to the unknown of freedom. The trip was anything but a walk in the park. At every turn the Israelite people were faced with difficulties and challenges. However, with each issue, God was there to see the people through.
The people had a choice about how they were going to respond to the journey. They might have been excited to be leaving Egypt, anticipating what God might do next, and looking forward to reaching freedom. Instead, over and over again, we read about them grumbling. They were never satisfied, never happy. Over and over they criticized Moses and Aaron for bringing them into the wilderness.
My regular musings post on website (musingsfromtheheartland.com) on Sundays. At present, I have a special series, Love Where You Live, which posts on Wednesdays. It is inspired by a book, This Is Where You Belong, by Melody Warnick, which the Plymouth library is using for their “One Book, One City” program this year. In Melody’s book we learn how she came to think of Blacksburg, Virginia, as a place where she belonged. She had intentionally made the choice to love where she lived.
Diane and I chose to move to Plymouth when I retired in 2005. Since we have lived here, I have met people who love Plymouth and all that it has to offer. I have also met people who are always complaining about the town and wish they lived somewhere else. If Warnick’s experience is any indication, these latter people would not be happy no matter where they lived. By default they have chosen to be grumblers. And as a result they are not happy people. But they have a choice. They can intentionally choose to do things to help them like the town. Warnick’s book and my series give guidelines of how they might go about it.
Myrna tells Gamache, “We’re the only ones who can change our lives, turn them around. So all those years waiting for someone else to do it are wasted.” (Still Life, p. 140) If you are not happy with your present situation, you are the only person who can change it. But will you???
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June 13, 2021 at 11:00AM
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You have the choice to change your life - KPCnews.com
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