My discomfort aside, let's agree that the image of a road with many paths off it is an accurate representation. You may hit a stretch with no offshoots for a long while and some may chafe under that while others might draw a sigh of relief at the thought of not having to make choices for a while. It's a deception, though. Every day you make dozens of choices that may inadvertently knock you off course and onto a path you didn't even realize you are taking until what's in front of you bears no resemblance to the place you thought you were heading.
But let's assume for the moment that you can always decide whether or not you stay on the road or take a path to a new course. Let's assume you at least have that much control over your life. Now picture that you've been moving along and you've taken some paths and have rejected others and suddenly you come to a fork in the road. There is no option to continue the path you were on, it doesn't exist from this point - you have to make a choice. To paraphrase a famous Russian WWII slogan, "Nowhere to retreat, behind us is Moscow" and the only way forward is to pick, under duress, one or the other.
You could say that every time you chose to stay on the road or picked a path to veer off it, you were making the same choice, so what's the difference? It feels different, doesn't it? When you're choosing to stay with what you already know, where you already thought you were heading it feels like less of a choice and more of a given. Semantics, you may protest, but words matter. Staying or veering off the road isn't the same as two new options you have to choose between.
So, how do you decide? There you are, in front of the fork and yes, of course there is a time limit, you can't just stand there and mull your options forever. No time to mourn the road you thought stretched into the hazy infinity, no time to blame yourself or anyone else for not foreseeing this possibility, no time to look back and wonder if you missed some signs along the way and it doesn't even matter if you did. You are here, there's the fork, now decide.
You have your gut, your fears, and your dreams; what is each of those worth? How do you give due weight to your gut? How do you acknowledge your fears without letting them overpower you? How do you honor your dreams without getting lost in the unreality of the clouds? In case you are hoping for some profound answer to follow, you'll be disappointed. I don't have the answers. I am just as lost as you might be. All I can do is figure out the mechanics, try to balance logic and inspiration and get to the answer before it's too late and life pushes me down one of the two paths before me.
