Fate or Free Will?

The last few weeks for me have been a struggle. Not just in getting motivated to climb, but motivated for life. When things don't go the way you planned, what is the best way to deal with it?

I sat down on the couch with my friend, and in an attempt at distracting me and keeping my mind off of things, we watched some Disney movie. Obviously that worked, because I don't even remember the title. On the couch, we discussed the influence of fate in life. How much can you believe in it? I figured out, that I am not one to fully believe in fate, and that life is generally what you make of it. My life is a product of total drive and desire. But, I run into road blocks, and when I don't get what I planned on getting, I try to justify it. This time, I justified fate. Since I cannot explain why recent things happened in my life, I tried to explain it through fate. As Jamison put it, fate isn't something that needs to be explained, it's just something that is. "Let go" he said. And it hit me hard. That's all I can do right now, and move on. I read a great quote that summarized this discussion and made me feel better about things that you can control, and the things you cannot.

"Destiny is a play between divine grace and willful self effort. Half of it you have no control over, the other of it is absolutely in your hands and your actions will show measurable consequence. Man is neither entirely a puppet of the gods nor is he entirely the captain of his own destiny. He is a little of both. We gallop through our lives like circus performers balancing on two speeding side-by-side horses. One foot is on the horse called "Faith", and the other on the horse called "Free Will" and the questions you have to ask every day is which horse is which, which horse do I need to stop worrying about because it's not under my control and which do I steer with concentrated effort." - Elizabeth Gilbert