One of the highlights of my summer vacation is watching the sunset on the beach. One evening while walking the beach minutes before sunset I spotted a message in the sand,
I said yes (heart).
Someone I’ll probably never meet was proposed to, perhaps just minutes before I arrived at that very spot. She wanted to share her answer with the world, or at least those of us who walk the beach during sunset. She said yes! I’m guessing she was confronted with a surprise (hopefully a pleasant one) and had to make a decision.
In her case the decision-making window was probably pretty tight (guessing seconds…which could feel like minutes for him). In all likelihood she had already been thinking through the scenario. Perhaps she wasn’t taken completely by surprise. Maybe she had been thinking long and hard about the day, the moment, and the instant he would ask and how she would feel and respond. Perhaps they had talked it through and it wasn’t a surprise at all.
No matter the circumstances there was something about her announcement in the sand that gave me pause.
Her declaration in the sand wasn’t just an answer, it was a decision…a big, crucial, and life-altering decision. Her future was about to change, not minimally but substantially. How much time, energy, thought, consideration, preparation, and deliberation do you think went into her decision?
The truth is we’ll never know for sure. We do know she wanted people to know her decision and based on that we’re inclined to think she was happy about her decision. At the end of the day neither you nor I will ever know what was involved in her decision-making process.
For those of you who imagine she considered it both seriously and at length would probably feel she made a well-informed decision. For those of you who imagine she was half expecting the proposal but hadn’t allowed herself to ponder it to deeply just in case it didn’t happen…well you might think she allowed the romance of the moment to sweep her off her feet. You might be wondering if she’s jumped into something prematurely. Finally for those of you who imagine she had no idea this was coming and was taken completely by surprise, you probably have an urge to encourage her to slow down and take time to seriously consider her options and what it means to (1) say yes, (2) say no, or (3) say nothing.
Unintended pregnancy is almost always a surprise. Women are reluctant to talk about it, and certainly no one ever writes in the sand…
I’m unexpectedly pregnant!
Too often women faced with unintended pregnancies are taken completely by surprise and allow the pressure of the moment to pave their way forward. A pressure filled way forward doesn’t necessarily make room for informed decision-making. My Decision Aid © is a tool developed specifically to assist practitioners who support women faced with unintended pregnancy decisions. My Decision Aid © is the first of its kind, and while it does not provide women with a decision it does assist women to begin to enter into to a decision-making process. My Decision Aid © empowers women to begin to consider their level of certainty, knowledge, value and support with respect to their unintended pregnancy decision.
“I said yes”, makes us want to cheer. “I’m unexpectedly pregnant”, makes us want to run. Both require decision-making. The first we hope and expect is informed, the second we turn away from and ignore, but it too deserves to be informed.
ClearLinQ Training & Coaching Inc. exists to empower women facing unintended pregnancy to engage in decision-making so they too can boldly declare their decision in the sand.
