Decisions, decisions.

Decisions are tricky.

I admit to doing a little impulse buying- completely devoid of extended thought, choosing based solely on that initial urge and tug at your gut- the color, the silky soft feel of the fabric, the cuff or the placket detailing. I also admit that several of my 'shopping trips' would be better classified as 'returning trips' - bring home impulse buy, try it on, fuss and fiddle, pack it up, take it back.

I have, at times, shopped like an anal, analytical accountant-debating and list making, comparing and contrasting until I've seen every last pair of luggage brown mid calf boots with a 2 inch heel and 14 inch shaft circumference in a 60 mile radius as well as those online. Judged cost vs. possible usage and outfit compositions.

I had a big decision to make this weekend... technically still 'have' vs 'had' as I haven't spoken with those in charge, but I feel like I've come to a peaceful middle ground and believe, for the next 5 minutes, anyway, that I know where I'm headed. I'm attempting to marry the gut reaction and pros and cons list into a well thought out choice that is good for my family, good for my marriage, and good for my soul. A possible job change. Nothing I can return or take back after a few weeks if it doesn't look/feel/turn out quite as well as I had hoped.

Tricky, these decisions. Tricky because you know, whether you'll admit it to yourself or not, that all the while you're making lists and debating salary vs. benefit, trouser fit vs. boot cut... your gut has already laid down the law.

I was actually doing a little 'research' for this blog... but seriously, there are TONS of cites, books, blogs, and opinions dealing with the topic of decision making- everyone has something to say about this topic- and this cite tries to combine them all :-) including graphs, charts, and quotes from different well know philosophers including this little gem -

Pooh's Little Instruction Book says "When you are a Bear of Very Little Brain, and Think of Things, you find sometimes that a Thing which seemed very Thingish inside you is quite different when it gets out into the open and has other people looking at it."

As well as this winner...

In The Histories, written in 450 B.C., Herodotus makes the following statement:"If an important decision is to be made [the Persians] discuss the question when they are drunk and the following day the master of the house...submits their decision for reconsideration when they are sober. If they still approve it, it is adopted; if not, it is abandoned. Conversely, any decision they make when they are sober is reconsidered afterwards when they are drunk."

Uh huh... that clears that up, doesn't it?

We can take information- real or imagined situations, our feelings, our friends feelings, what we feel our friends might be feeling- and make it into a HUGE THING in our head... but on closer examination, or, as Pooh stated, when viewed through other's eyes- eyes without such an emotional attachment- the THING looks much different.

To be fair- I imagine the Persians felt they were giving due diligence to a topic by providing both rational thought and gut decision/truth spewing drunken conversation to whatever they were debating- pillaging etc.

Do I have a point... maybe. You know I'm trying to be more active in 2012. I'm trying to GO, DO, and BE who and what I want to become.... and this decision had me flummoxed. Details would lead me one way, my gut would pull me back.... and then I saw this:

Have you prayed about it as much as you've talked about it?

and that's why, now, I can say that I *had* a difficult decision to make. I'm done.