I have just returned home from a visit to New Mexico. My parents are staying in Cloudcroft, NM to escape the seemingly unending Texas heat, and they invited me up for a long weekend. After 64 days over 100 degrees Fahrenheit here in Austin, it was glorious to breathe the much-cooler, fresh mountain air and feel a chill that made me enjoy putting on a light jacket.
Talking today with a new friend, I mentioned I moved to Austin a little over a year ago from NYC and how much I enjoyed all four seasons in New York. He commented that our summer heat must be really unbearable for me, but you know, it hasn’t been. I have lived in Texas before, and I am familiar with the heat. But this year has been different for me also because I chose to live in Austin. I chose to move here, knowing full well the summers are hot and long. And I am grateful to be here, close to my family and good friends and around abundant TexMex food. I am looking forward to the cooler temps of fall, but I’m not going to argue with the weather. It’s pointless — I’m not going to win — and what does it serve to be annoyed with the heat? It only ends up making me miserable. I am grateful for air conditioning, though!
I have learned that it doesn’t serve me to live my life playing the martyr, or giving up my personal responsibility by saying “I have to…” Saying (even if just internally), “I choose to…” is much more empowering, putting me in the driver’s seat of my own life. I own the choices I’ve made and accept the consequences. If I don’t like the consequences, I have the ability to make another choice. What are you choosing to do?