The path forward

metaphors for change & uncertainty

This morning’s walk, an early one to avoid the heat and humidity, made me think of paths.

The path we often walk, near the Milwaukee River, was very overgrown with late summer’s green goodness. We joked about needing a machete to get through. (See the photo below.)

In reality, it felt like a bit of an adventure to be closed in by the plants. It felt like being in some remote location, rather than on a path in the middle of a big city.

As I pondered more about paths, I thought how ideas and images of paths and roads and journeys are often handy metaphors for life.

We talk about situations being “impassable” like a path or road. We sing along to "Life is a highway” and “The long and winding road.” We talk about experiences in life as forks or obstacles in the road, a bumpy road (or smooth one), a roadblock, the road to success, an indirect path, the path forward, and on and on.

There are many quotes or sayings about paths (see here) and roads (see here).

From the Buddha: “No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path.”

To Dolly Parton: “If you don’t like the road you’re walking, pave another one.”

Most will recognize Robert Frost’s famous words from his poem “The Road Not Taken:”

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

The words “road less traveled” have come to symbolism individualism and self-determination, even if that’s not what Frost intended according to some critics.

***

We often find metaphors about journeys and paths and roads to be useful as we navigate life. Two of the certainties in life are, after all, change and uncertainty.

I’m thinking back to what I wrote earlier, how it felt like an adventure to walk the overgrown path. Perhaps we can view some of our experiences - ones we might consider bumpy roads, forks in the road, detours on the path - as adventures too.

There's the caveat, of course, that some life experiences are just straight up bad, painful, or tragic.

However, for our day-to-day, knowing that life is full of change and uncertainty, the idea of an evolving road or path may be helpful. It might be a way to reframe a situation. It might be a path forward.

With care and gratitude,

Mary

P.S. If you haven’t yet, be sure to check out last week’s post celebrating summer’s pleasures and the benefits of doing “anything” that’s not necessarily “something.” Here’s the link: “Something & anything”