The Voice that Whispers in the Back of Your Head

I know we all know that Voice. You know the one that says “Hey remember those butter cream cookies in the kitchen???”; or the one that says “Nah… you don’t want to go to the gym tonight.” I think the Voice is commonly referred to as Jiminy Cricket. Okay, well I know that Jiminy wasn't reminding me that there were butter cream cookies in the kitchen....

In the movie Pinocchio, the Blue Fairy tells Pinocchio “You must learn to choose between right and wrong.” Pinocchio says, “Right and wrong? But how will I know?” The Blue Fairy answers that his conscience will tell him. Pinocchio, being completely naïve asks, “What are conscience?” Jiminy Cricket pipes up with, “What are conscience! I'll tell ya! A conscience is that still small voice that people won't listen to. That's just the trouble with the world today...”

So here I am listening to my conscience, listening to my gut. And sometimes doing the right thing isn’t easy. It hurts. But I also know that if I think about how difficult it is to do the right thing in my life, I can only imagine how difficult it will be to live my life doing the wrong things. People think that doing the right thing is hard, and I agree with them, it is hard. On the other hand, doing the wrong thing seems easy, but seriously, it gets hard fast. And then undoing the wrong thing seems to take a lot more time and energy than we thought, all the while taking the effort away from the initial focus of - - - doing the right thing. So in the end, doing the right thing turns out to be doing the easiest thing.

And after all, who wants Jiminy Cricket saying “Go ahead, make a fool of yourself, then maybe you'll listen to your conscience.” No thank you.... not me.