A Forest Path

I love paths. I love the metaphor they serve for our lives and our futures.  Its possible to equate almost any image of a path to a life that someone will lead. 

In this path, there are boundaries - none insurmountable, but clearly there's an easier option to continue forward. You can choose to climb the fence on your left - perhaps the equivalent of quitting your job and moving to a foreign country. Climbing the fence will be difficult but not impossible. Crossing the river leads to all sorts of unknown opportunities (new paths) - again a metaphor for giving up your current (safe) career path for the unknown bounty.

Generally speaking, unless your foreign country of choice is Afghanistan, the likelihood is that you won't die from climbing that fence and crossing that river. You may come out wet (and broke), but you will know what is on the other side of that river. For some - continuing down the current path without knowing what is being missed is intolerable.  Others may simple say "what river?"

On the left is a hill. It would appear that the ambitious would be able to climb that hill before reaching the tree with the exposed roots. In your life, are you faced with the option of continuing down your current lifes' path, or taking a difficult route leading upwards? I imagine that at the top of that hill on the left, there is a clearing where the sun shines. I think a lot of people have chosen to climb that hill to bask in the glow of the sun. 

Its definitely much easier to carry on forward, isn't it? Down the road aways (is that months from now in your life? Years from now?) the path begins to kink. It goes off to the left a bit, then comes back to the right - then turns left again...

And disappears.

Does this mean the path ends? Does it fork? Does it carry on? It almost appears through the trees that the endpoint is a lake or body of water. Does this path get you there?

There is an easy path to life. You can usually keep on going doing the things you do well. But the outcome will always be unknown. The small kinks that are coming up are not a big deal, although they are a little disconcerting because its difficult to tell what happens. But when the path turns altogether and you can't see where your life is going - its both terrifying and exciting at the same time.

What is the uncertainty to you? Do you dread it? Or are you eager to find out what's up around the bend?

One other thing. Its easy to get fixated on the path and where it goes. Alternatively, you can get embroiled thinking about your choices and whether you should climb that hill. While you are on this path though - don't forget to look at the exposed roots of that tree just up on the left. Its fascinating. I think we spend too much time thinking about the end or choosing our path, and not enough time thinking about what is along the path itself. Thats the journey