I was thinking this morning about choices made and paths never taken. I think about questions never asked, or ideas not followed up on, where they might have led. Who might we be today if we did things differently? Maybe it’s because I am getting a second chance at making a different choice.

When I was 19 I had an amazing teacher at the local community college. Dr. Mooney was the first one to ask me, “Why don’t you look into Jung and Jungian analysis?” My response was to run out to the Thunderbird bookstore and buy myself a copy of “The Archetypes of the Collective Unconscious.” I dive head first into new ideas with very little planning.

I took my purchase outside, sat down, opened to page 1 of 390 and began to read. I think I read that first sentence 20 times. I didn’t know what the hell he was talking about. I just didn’t get it. Probably because I didn’t have enough life behind me to act as a guide. The point of this is that I just moved on. I was so excited about learning about Jung, exploring his ideas. But I let it drop, I just stopped pursuing it. I didn’t look for an easier approach to the topic, I didn’t ask Dr. Mooney’s advice. I just set it aside and moved on to something else.

Now all these years later, and many books read, including “The Archetypes of the Collective Unconscious,” I can say I am getting a second crack at it. I am getting another chance to ask all those questions of myself that I couldn’t or didn’t before. I get to follow up on what I let go of.

I believe there is a place where destiny and dreams meet. The dream of what you once wanted will come around in another disguise. Jung said he believed what he believed, whether anyone agreed with him or not. He knew he was on the right path for him and didn’t care what others thought or felt about it. We all have a path that is right for us. It’s our job to find it, no matter what others may think about it. That is what second chances are all about. Getting back on the right path for us.

In these matters we can’t seek approval outside ourselves. These are matters of the soul. We have to listen to our own soul and what it wants, and then honor what we hear.

There is a beautiful quote from Jung out of his Red Book that says exactly this. It was published posthumously and was really the story of his inner journey. But it reminds me what second chances are really for, another chance to be our true selves.

“Who should live your life if not yourself…there is only one way and that is your way…no other way is like yours…you must fulfill the way that it is in you.”

Here’s to second chances and authentic choices.

kb