The Journey or The Person

I saw a commercial recently that proffered the question, "Does the person make the journey or does the journey make the person?" It got me thinking because it's a really good question.

As we go through life, is it within ourselves to change the peaks and valleys, the twists and turns of our own personal journeys? I think there is in how we respond to those peaks and valleys, those twists and turns. And in that response, we actually shape our journeys in a way that could drastically change the course of where we are headed.

However, those same peaks and valleys, twists and turns also affect us in such a way that we feel we have to change, to adapt to a new reality that we are faced with. And in so doing, we are changed not by the journey that we are on but by ourselves.

This raises another interesting question, "Is our journey directly a result of the decisions that we have made, or is there some other force, some being or entity, influencing the events in out lives towards its own ends?"

Sorry to get philosophical and even metaphysical here, but let's go with it because I feel it's an important question. I think that there is most certainly a direct relationship between the choices that we make and the circumstances and situations we are faced with. However, I also believe that there are unseen forces actively working in all of our lives everyday that we are not aware of. Forces that keep us safe by altering situations slightly in order to help us avoid an accident, or encouraging certain thoughts to occur that will help us with a crisis or dilemma that we are facing.

I feel it's these forces, good and bad, that affect our lives in ways that ultimately change us into who we are now because we've LET them change us. Something to remember is that we are who we are today not so much because we were born that way, but because we have changed and adapted in response to the events of our lives and HOW we respond is, most of the time, our decision.

So to answer the original question, I will simply say, "Yes." But remember that ultimately, it's we who change ourselves.

What do you think?