Life really is like a game of cards

“Life is like a game of cards. The hand that is dealt you represents determinism; the way you play it is free will.” Jawaharlal Nehru

I always thought free will was doing what we liked when we liked. I never thought of it as a means for changing the hand we have been dealt in life. I thought freewill came when we had everything we wanted. Could do anything we wanted. I thought freedom was a prize at the end. I never believed it was a journey the whole way through life. This quote made me realise otherwise. We are always free. Always in a position to change our direction. We are always free to choose the the hand we are dealt and the way we play our hand.

And now I realise choices are synonymous with freewill. In order to play this game called life in the way we want, we have to accept we have the freewill to do so. Though this sounds good on paper, I wasn’t sure about its meaning in practicality. I questioned that we may have free will but what about the responsibilities that come with the hand we have been dealt? What about people that rely on us? How do they factor into free will? And who determines the hand we get? Is it us or is it something larger than we are?

I had to contemplate these questions for quite some time. Mulling this way and that. Thinking about those times when I got the worst hand in cards. Thinking about the times when I threw my hand in because there was no way I could win. And remembering feeling a huge sense of defeat. Thinking about other times when knowing I could not win but I stayed in and played and got great satisfaction -  laughing at myself for not thinking differently. Or the times when I got the best hand and breezed through the game.

Life is like that, we are given exactly what we ask for. The hand we are dealt is as a result of the messages we send out to the Universe. It is the answer to our prayers.  So in answer to some of my questions, I realised quite simply that the responsibilities come from the way we played the game and what we asked for – we chose to become parents. Now we have to face the consequences of the responsibilities that come with it. We chose to get married. So we have to face the responsibility of being a couple. We chose the careers we are. So we either stick with them or change them.

Where we are today, at this very moment, is because of what we asked for and the way we played the game of life. No one else made us choose which way to play. Only we could do that. Yes, sometimes we believe the hand we have been given is stacked against it. But it hasn’t. It is exactly what we asked for. If we send mixed messages to the Universe, that’s what we get in return.

So really it is up to us to accept that determinism does not define the outcome. It helps to set us on course to become the best people we can be. But the journey, the way we play the games, the power of free will are all ours. We just have to be brave enough, strong enough, and innovative enough to play the game knowing at any time we can alter our course by learning the lessons we asked for in the first place. Knowing we must frame what we ask for because we will get it.

Knowing deep within that freewill is not the destination, not the outcome. Rather accepting that freewill is the journey of the hand of cards we asked for. Knowing life really is like a game of cards.