Our hearts go out to the victims of Typhoon Haiyan in the Phillipines. As of this writing, over 2,400 people have died, and many thousands have been left homeless. If you’d like to help, visit nyti.ms/1dZxW64 to make a donation of money or clothing.

Life is precious, and sometimes our existence is all-too fragile. Adversity is something that we all face, sooner or later in our lives, and sometimes our lives are full of challenges that may seem endless. I believe that within every adversity lies the seeds of growth and change for the better, if we allow that growth and change to occur.

Our lives are made up by the choices that we make. In the moment, our choices may seem small and inconsequential to us. But as time passes, we begin to see the consequences of those small choices on our lives, and on the lives of others. Many years ago, as a young man, I prayed to know what career path I should take, and received a definite answer from above. Had I not chosen to pray over that decision, there would be no Emotion Code, no Body Code, no knowledge about the Heart-Wall, and tens of thousands of lives around the world would not have been changed for good. How grateful I am for that choice that I made that day. I have made many bad decisions in my life, like most of us have. But that decision was a good one, that will continue to benefit mankind long after I am gone. Here is one of my favorite poems about choices and consequences, by Robert Frost.

The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear,
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I marked the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

— Robert Frost