A Change in Paths

One of the decisions we make in life is which path to follow and what we do with the time that we have. I once had my life planned out; I had fantastic dreams that I wanted to fulfill and extraordinary goals that I wanted to accomplish. I thought that there was nothing in the world that could stop me from becoming what I wanted to be and from doing what I wanted to do. I wanted to one day be a singer, a dancer, an artist, a mother, and probably another half dozen titles that I can no longer remember. I had my life all figured out, and then one day I realized that our plans do not always go as we originally planned. Each time that I tried something new or attempted to work toward my dreams I had people that would tell me that I wasn't good enough to draw, or I would offend someone I cared about because I was told that I sang well. That wasn't who I wanted to be: I didn't want to constantly fail or be a burden to others. As I progressed through life I felt that I was running into new bends in my road that was leading me toward a future completely different than what I had originally planned. I continued in the arts and obtained a bachelor's degree, but I ended up in business instead. I had thought to return home from serving a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and get married, but the right opportunity didn't come as I had wished. I had hoped to achieve a standing in the world where I could make a difference and do more of what I love to do, and yet, I am still wandering through life unsure about what I will do with my future and what I truly want. The absolute truth is that some days I feel lost because every path that I start walking on leads to a dead end, and some days it seems that I am running out of paths to choose.

I have been learning recently, however, that the bends or forks in the path do not mean that we are not on the right path. I think, rather, that 1) it does not matter which path we take so long as we are happy with our decision and discovering true joy or 2) the many paths that we take due to forks or bends in the road and changes in direction will ultimately lead us to walk the actual path we are to take. So do we give up and sit down on some log on the side of the road because we are still not reaching the destination for which we started? Do we start walking backward, hoping that we can return to the beginning of our journey? We cannot return to the beginning, unfortunately, and sitting down would mean that we relinquish the remainder of our journey. Why not instead, then, keep walking and enjoy the journey? I was reminded earlier today of a talk by Dieter F. Uchtdorf, in which he shared about how he and his wife love to ride bicycles and whenever he feels competitive, she reminds him, “Dieter, it’s not a race; it’s a journey. Enjoy the moment” (Of Regrets and Resolutions, October 2012). 
Sometimes it is difficult to enjoy the moments that make up our journey, but as we move forward on our path and accept whatever changes, obstacles, and bends along the way, we will realize that perhaps we were on the right path the entire time. Maybe I needed to keep running into dead ends and walk the crazy road that I've been on so that I could learn to enjoy the journey more, rather than progress directly toward the end destination.

There will be times in our lives when we feel lost on our journey because our path choices seem to become limited, but if that is the case, we can at least take comfort in the knowledge that we may find the path that we need to be on and want to be on eventually.