I remember begining to smoke. I always remember because I chose it very consciously and whenever I speak about quitting smoking I explain that my consciousness about the beginning had a lot to do with my ability to call the shots about the ending. I don't smoke now. I choose not to. But I smoked a cigerette Christmas eve after not smoking in a year and it doesn't bother me that in the realm of possibilities I may always choose something other than my true over-arching will . I always left it open to choose otherwise. In this matter I choose free will. In this case it is sucessful. I have not been a smoker in four years and I think very little on the subject. I have recently quit something else: Meat.
I quit eating meat this new year, and not for the first time. I quit with the whole rest of my life in mind. I have been a vegetarian before and have no doubt that it is possible and preferrable to me. It is only as a matter of convenience that I have remained a meat eater. Now I slide back into vegetarianism with no trouble but the matter of living with a meat eating person in harmony. Yet this time I decided it was for the rest of my life, and it feels final, but flexible. What that means is that Ihave a statement and a clause attached to it, and both are as real as it gets to me. They compose my resolution.
I hereby relinguish my active consumption of meat of all kinds including the red and white meats and seafood. In the case that I have sucessfully ceased eating meat to the point where it requires no immediately active will-power, then I will allow myself, when the occasion strikes me, to eat a piece of fish. This will secondary clause will not be the mainstay but will be the exception. Resolutions are back and white and flexible in the long run. This is the most natural and the most possible way to choose to change a habit.
