I’ve been thinking lately about the paths we didn’t take. Not in a regretful way, exactly. More in a curious way.
There are directions many of us could have gone that never became our primary lives. Maybe we almost pursued a different vocation, moved somewhere else, studied something different, or followed a particular relationship or opportunity. Sometimes those paths close quietly. Sometimes they change dramatically.
But what I find interesting is that even when we truly move in another direction, parts of those paths sometimes find their way back to us.
Early in college, I thought I might spend my life in music composition and music theory. Later, in seminary, I imagined teaching theology in an academic setting. Neither became my primary vocational path. And yet, music, reflection, meaning-making, teaching, and community formation still show up all over my life and work now. Not in the exact form I once imagined, but in ways that still feel connected to those earlier selves.
I wonder if this happens more often than we realize. I find it strangely comforting.
What about you? Are there paths you didn’t take that somehow still echo through your life now?
—Renee Roederer
Smuggling Grace 