Timeless Truths #1
Reflecting decades later on her early life experience in a Nazi prison camp, Dr. Edith Eger embraces the heart of Victor Frankl’s teaching and makes it her own: “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms–to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way. Each moment is a choice. No matter how frustrating or boring or constraining or painful or oppressive our experience, we can always choose how we respond. And I finally begin to understand that I, too, have a choice. That realization will change my life.”
Last year, Dr. Eger’s book, The Choice, was one of the most impactful books that I read. Describing her experience in harrowing detail, she does not spare the horror, but neither did she neglect the beauty, determination and hope of embracing the possible. Now in her 90’s, her memoir provides masterful guidance for continual growth throughout life. She jokes that she has always been a late bloomer, completing her doctorate at age 52 and becoming an author at 90. As she describes the decades that followed her time at Auschwitz, she cautions, “No one heals in a straight line.” Articulating the tension of difficult circumstances with relentless choice, Dr. Eger nevertheless reminds me that “we can always choose how we respond.”
Your challenging scenario may pale in comparison to starvation in a Nazi prison camp, but it is really not about comparison. What you are dealing with is what you are dealing with. What choices and responses can you make in the midst of your circumstances?
Worth Repeating
We can always choose how we respond.
-Dr. Edith Eger
The Choice
You can click here to purchase this book on amazon or you can probably find it in almost every bookstore.
