You Cannot Escape Your Destiny

Or can you? A poster to a spiritual message board I frequent posed an interesting question. He asked, and I'm paraphrasing, "How do you feel about destiny? What about free will and choice?" I responded with the following.

For me, destiny is the result of choice. The choices I make influence my fate(s). Over the course of several years, several spiritual principles have become part of who I am: love, tolerance, compassion, non-violence, and the like. I made a conscious choice to both learn about those principles and make them a part of my everday life. As a result, I often find myself helping those in need, speaking about the importance of tolerance, and the like. The actual acts of helping or speaking are, of course, choices. If I'm to remain faithful to the principles of my path, however, I have to choose to act.

If I'm walking through a grocery store and see a parent hitting a child, can I just sit back and watch? I could, but that would go against the principles to which I adhere. As such, I'd approach the parent and say, very gently, "Hands are for hugging, not for hitting." Was it destiny or fate that brought me to that particular situation? Probably not. Based on my choices, however, I was fated or destined to act.