joe Lipka photography

Choices we make affect our lives. Some of the choices are made for us. Choice of parents and date of birth are the first two choices made for us. In our youth, our parents continue to make choices for us. Later, we choose what we do, where we go and who accompanies us on the journey through life. We decide; left or right, up or down, light or dark, right or wrong. These decisions cannot be made without some direction or guidance along the way. Sometime the signs are easy to read. Sometime there are none. Some signs were there but have been obscured. Were they obscured because they were incorrect, or were they obscured to lead us astray? We have no knowledge of their utility and must rely on our own sense of direction. We look at the alternatives laid out plainly before us. We then wonder, can there be other alternatives that are there, but can’t be seen? Should we include unseen alternatives in our choice or should we forge ahead, focused on what is in plain view? We choose and act.

Implicit in the choice is a consequence. As we head down the chosen path do we know if we have made the correct choice? Is the path straight and level, or tortured and circuitous? Can we continue easily, or do we come upon an obstruction? Is dead end real or false? Suppose we find that the wall is impenetrable and we can go no further. Now what? Should we consider the dead end just that and begin a new journey from that spot, or should we retrace our steps in the hope that this setback is only temporary? In either case we see that the guides and markers don’t look the same as when we passed them the first time. Can we find that critical juncture where the poor choice was made and use the knowledge gained from our experience to make a better decision, or do we ignore our prior decisions on our new journey?

This is the experience of the labyrinth. Make a decision based on the information at hand. You go left, right, up, down or turn back and retrace your steps. In the labyrinth you can retrace your steps. Life is a labyrinth of alternatives, choices and decisions for the many possible paths we face each day. Some decisions are not important. Others don’t seem important at the time. But we must live with them once they are made. Whether the choice was a good idea or “a good idea at the time” can only be determined after the fact. Sometimes a decision has consequences that don’t appear or affect you until much later. Unlike the Labyrinth you cannot retrace your steps through life and make that same decision again. You make a choice in your life and go on.