📖 The Beauty of the Second Choice

The other night, I was walking with someone, and I asked a simple question:

“If you could be doing anything right now, what would it be?”

Her first answer came out with raw honesty- unfiltered, human, and almost shocking in its openness. It made me laugh, not because it was wrong, but because it was so rare to hear someone say the truth out loud like that.

Then I asked her what her second choice would be, something more tangible, she paused for a bit. She came up with a softer one. A picture of herself at an interactive museum, having fun, exploring, experiencing something different.

And it struck me: life is about those second choices.

We don’t always get the first thing we want. Timing, distance, circumstance, or sheer chance can block the “Plan A” moments. But there is something quietly powerful about the secondary joys we carry. They are the things that keep our days meaningful while we wait for something else to unfold.

The second choice isn’t settling. It’s resilience. It’s curiosity. It’s remembering that happiness doesn’t come from one single source.

For me, that was the reminder:

That laughter is a choice.

That wonder is a choice.

That connection, art, music, or simply being alive enough to walk and talk, these are choices too.

So maybe life isn’t just about chasing the first answer. Maybe it’s about learning to fall in love with the second one, and realizing that the secondary options are what make our story full, surprising, and rich.

Soul Thread is about those threads, the secondary joys that weave us back to ourselves.

Think about a time when your “first choice” wasn’t possible.

What was your “second choice,” and how did it end up shaping your experience?

Take a few moments to journal: What secondary joys are available to me right now that I might be overlooking?