My thirteen-year old son called me just as I got to O’Hare airport for my flight home from Chicago. I had attended the final installment of a year-long Sacred Contracts training with Caroline Myss, and I was giddy with insights about my life and my future. I interrupted my own mental processing to listen to my son.

“Mom, have you been on Facebook? I posted a video of my hit!”

He was referring to his weekend baseball game in which he’d gotten the best hit of his career, a solid drive over the second baseman’s head into right field. A strategic and smart ball player, Asher struggles with the limits of his physical capacities. Having started out with a good deal of hesitation at the plate, he’s faced and overcome his fears in the four years he’s played on Little League teams. Through hard work and plenty of time at the batting cages, he has gotten better at protecting the plate and connecting the bat with the ball. Still he sometimes gets frustrated about hovering near the bottom of the batting order.

Showing the true colors of the Athlete, Asher always keeps the good of the team in mind and yet he strives for his personal best. I could tell by his voice that this hit was different. He felt it. He knew. And, miraculously, the whole thing was captured on video.

“Mom, I watched the video and I can see. If I had just stepped into it, the ball would have sailed over the fence! Even the coach said it’s true.”

I realized the relevance his story has to the Fate and Destiny charts that I and my Sacred Contracts classmates and crew had just cast over the weekend in Chicago.

If I had just stepped into it! How many times do we look back on life and realize with hindsight that our fear and hesitation holds us back? Indeed, the difference between accepting our fate and co-creating our destiny is to step into life, take a firm stance and take one step toward the universal possibilities for our life. Often that willingness, represented by the act of stepping forward, is enough to smack our dreams over the wall with the increased force of our own will, the momentum of the crowd cheering, and the wind carrying our effort.

Like Asher, this weekend I vowed to keep my eye on the ball, even though on some days it seems to be coming at me at 100 miles an hour. What I now understand about the difference between Fate and Destiny, is that I can stand in hesitation about my life and get mixed results. Unsure about my own commitment, I flinch when difficult stuff comes my way. In just such a defensive position, sometimes I’ll walk to first base and sometimes I’ll strike out. It’s all dependent on who’s pitching. But when I step into my swing and risk the humiliation of missing entirely, that’s when I seize the chance to set my dreams in motion.

It’s getting clearer to me now. I can shy away and accept my fate or step into my destiny. The choice is mine to make.