Life is a One Way Street

We can’t step into the same river twice. We can’t go back the same way we came either. 

Whatever road we chose to walk down, whatever decision we made, whatever we decided to say, we can’t reverse it. What’s done is done. Once we cross the bridge, it disappears behind us.

We can try to correct an error or apologize or live with the consequences. But time passed and actions were made. We can’t revert time. 

It’s not that we can’t go back to a job, relationship or city. But we have to take a new bridge to get there. That route will be a completely new path with its own struggles. 

Whatever we choose to do, it’s a one-way street. There is only forward. The road behind disappeared and where we stand after taking five steps is still t=0. It’s not t=0+5 steps. Life isn’t a math equation we can erase and re-plot. The present moves along with each step we take. 

With every step, the Earth rotated, the birds flew by and others took their steps. There's no going back, at least to the past we left behind. Everything changed once a step was taken forward. 

There are no airtight playbooks. We are writing our own with each step. We can review them but we can’t replicate the past nor expect something identical to happen in the future. 

We have to make everything up as we go along. We can only rely on a set of tools to guide each decision. But we’ll never know the results of our actions ahead of time. 

Isn’t that a relief? There’s no going back the way we came. We’re on a perpetual one-way street until we no longer have the strength or will to take another step forward. Even the roads we take to go back home will present us with new adventures unforeseen the morning earlier.