There is a saying that you never can put your foot in the same river twice. The river is in constant movement. No molecule of water is ever where it once was. Similarly, you are a huge array of cells, molecules, and organisms that are constantly rearranging themselves. It may appear for a moment that you have repeated something or that you are back where you once were, but truly you are on a magical mystery tour, and you have never been where you are right now ever before. Choices have gotten you here, not mistakes.

There Are No Mistakes

Even if you feel like you are going backward, you didn’t make a mistake — which we would identify as consciously choosing something that is inappropriate, ignoring all sorts of information. You simply made a choice that brought you to where you are now. This choice opened many doors for you whether or not you walked through them. Every choice has led you to another infinite array of choices, and every door you have walked through has led you to another. All steps, all doors, all rivers, and all roads lead to now.

So be fearless. Even if you can’t be fear-free, you can be fearless. Anything that is fear driven won’t really work for you. Any discomfort you feel just develops greater compassion, and the compassion does not usually become evident until you’re done evaluating all your difficulties. Have you ever noticed how much time it takes to tell all the “why” stories? Trying to enumerate and articulate all the reasons why you are where you are can be exhausting and not very enlightening, from our perspective. You may understand that intellectually and realize that everyone tries to give some meaning to their discomforts and difficulties, to make a story that gives them some kind of importance, but eventually it will have no importance whatsoever. The “why” story will be meaningless in the midst of the larger dynamic of compassion that becomes your greater guiding force.