A Fork in the Road

The Three Trees, Rembrandt, 1643

“…Life is a bent path among branching possibilities—after you move past a fork in the road, you cannot get back.”
John Updike, In the Beauty of the Lilies

I've been thinking of this quote from Updike for the past couple of weeks. It is wonderful yet intimidating when life presents us with possibilities. We pray that we will take the right path, make the right decision; we should indeed carefully consider the possibilities. However, I think there are times and situations when we can get back to that fork in the road. When we know we have chosen the wrong path, it would be foolish to keep going down that road and hope for the best. I believe we can retrace our steps (it will probably be arduous, requiring sweat and determination, and perhaps embarrassment and humility), but it sure beats pridefully stumbling down the path of stones and briars, absorbing unnecessary injuries that will take a lengthy time to heal, and acquiring a lifetime of scars.