We tend to look to the new year as a clean slate and a chance for a new beginning. Except that as anyone who has made New Year’s resolutions knows, the choices and actions of our yesterdays loaded today with momentum and it is extremely difficult to escape the gravity well of genes, habit, and history. It is always easiest to keep walking the path we’re on…it is usually the path of least resistance.
In the book Endymion by Dan Simmons, a character considers how to give the best possible message of hope to humanity – a kind of updated sermon on the mount. Her goal was to pare this message down to its most critical essence. She worked on it for years and finally got it down to two words.
CHOOSE AGAIN.
With every single breath, you can choose again. You can make a different choice or the same choice you made before. The point is that you choose again. What went before is nothing compared to what you can do by choosing again, right now. Making a choice, though only the work of a moment, is a brave act of will and participation that makes your life intentional. The consequences of your choice will often be a transition that you will work through and sometimes it takes a great deal of time and effort, depending on the choice you’ve made. But if you are ready for a new beginning, to do more than move forward on the momentum that brought you to this time and place, choose again. Choices don’t have to be big to make a difference, especially in our lives. A small pebble cast into a pond sends out waves in every direction. Choosing to turn off the TV, to watch a sunrise, to smile at a stranger, to not do something we’d ordinarily do, or to do something we usually wouldn’t…these are small things but each of them sets us on a new path and changes the course of what went before. Even choosing again what we chose before is a profound act, as it affirms our intention and renews our commitment to our choice.
It is with these thoughts in mind that we announce the appointment of Auston Van Slyke as President of Pacific Crest, effective January 1, 2023. Dan Apple will be stepping back and assuming the role of Vice President of Research and Development. We invite you to learn more about our new choice at About Us.
