When A Door Closes

We are faced with many decisions throughout our life. Some are strictly professional while others purely personal. Some evoke thought while others provoke heartache. Some allow us to breathe freely while others knock the breath out of our lungs.

Decisions are especially difficult to make for those afflicted with the curse of overthinking. Each decision seems crucial to the existence of such illuminated souls and hence requires an eternity to arrive at. Their job is made burdensome by their ability to foresee the myriad consequences of their decisions. They are prone to second-guess themselves out of fear of reaching a decision that is not in their best interests.

Making a decision often entails choosing one option over other alternatives. As Robert Frost eloquently wrote,

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

Replace the roads in Frost’s poem with doors and you have a modern-day dilemma. Choosing what lies beyond one door means giving up on all the other doors that may or may not be visible to you. Opening one door automatically leads to the closure of all other doors.

Consider this. What if the door you would have chosen seals itself to you? What if the person you wanted to reach on the other side slams it shut on your face? What if the door is closed but not by you?

When a door closes we often spend time wondering why. We wonder whether we could have done anything differently to prevent the door from closing in the first place. We question whether we should keep knocking gently or bang our fists. We forget to consider whether it is worth our time and effort to plead with those on the other side when our voices have been muffled.

We are so focused on the one closed door that we remain oblivious to the many open doors inviting us in.

Be the person that stays true to himself.

Be the person that follows through on a decision once he has made up his mind.

Be the person that knows when to walk away gracefully instead of banging his fists on a closed door that refuses to open.

Be the person that bids farewell to dead ends and embraces new opportunities.

Be the person that believes good things come to those who move forward.

Be the person that knows those who are meant to be in his life will always gravitate back towards him no matter how far they drift away.

Be the person that never gives up on hope.

Be the person that trusts in the powers of fate and destiny. Maktub. It is written.

Be the person that walks down an unknown path with an open mind and an open heart.

There are places to see and people to meet and promises to keep.