No Going Back

There is no going back – no return
to the defining moments of our life.
Junctures forever imprinted on
the path of our existence.

With only our brief life as reference
we step in inches on our thousand mile journey,
minute changes forever altering the trail we walk

These inflection points, more frequent than we’d guess,
pepper our past, present and future
as doorways to other lives,

giving no indication
of the alternate universe
lying beyond.

Bounced along on our private
river of fate,
we tweak our outcome
with choices taken.

Cursing ourselves for our mistakes and then praising each success,
we hopelessly seek to manipulate
our destiny under the guise of
earned wisdom,

never realizing that the
seemingly random events
in our life are
the guideposts on our personal road.

Never comprehending that
the extent to which we
choose to read the signs and
let them guide us,

profoundly impacts the nature,
and flavor,
of our existence.