The point of no return

 

Recently, I drove my mother to despair. I told that I was planning on getting a tattoo, a smiley face on my toe. She was not having any of it. Despite being an adult, I guess I will not stop being my mother's child. I decided not to get my toe inked, because the cost of my mother going through a gloomy episode is not worth any tattoo. After I had the conversation with her, I kept replaying what she was saying in my head, to pick out what exactly it was that irked her out about the idea. The major reason came out to be the permanence of the ink on my skin. It's a procedure that once it's finished it's almost irreversible. Then, that had me thinking about what else we go through, that is irrevocable once we have gone through it. It is not always a process with physical ramifications, at times the effects could be mental or emotional or spiritual. 

The commonality in a lot of decisions is time, a very natural occurrence in our everyday existence. Time moves linearly, always forward, each day starts at the same time and ends at the same time. Once time has passed, there is no retrieving it or how the time was spent. When decisions are made, there is a transaction that happens in terms of time. Essentially, you are purchasing a future reality based on the current choice of action that you make, and there is no warranty on the results of your decision. The hopes of having the ability of travelling backwards in time, at this stage of human civilisation at least, is very much a pipe dream. Most of what we know is only in theory in regards to somehow achieving the ability to travel in time. 

There is a way, however, that we all tend to try to break the laws of the passage of time. For me, it usually takes place in the shower, for some in may be late in the night when they can not fall asleep. The tendency to relive past moments in our heads, is one that takes up a lot of time in our lives as we try to rephrase things we said in the past, or try to simulate what effect an alternative choice at some point in time would have at the present moment. These thoughts are not a bad thing in themselves, you know the saying, the one who does not learn from history is bound to repeat it. It's like an air plane crash investigation, the professionals  do all nitpicking of the wreckage to see what went wrong, but it does not change the fact that the plane crashed. The purpose of the investigation is to prevent future crashes from happening due to the same reason, not that the observations can somehow undo the accident that happened. The same can be said for our own pondering over past experiences, especially the terrible ones. 

At present there are so many decisions one makes in a day alone. Each choice carries the weight of its own consequence. How do you truly know that you are making the right one? The fear of the unknown is a painfully stifling   Thankfully, there are those around us who have more experience in areas that we are unfamiliar with. Insights that one can get from those who have crossed the path ahead already are invaluable. You can learn from the regrets of the veterans around you to save you from having similar regrets. You can also learn the shortcuts, and the paths of least resistance from the travellers of life that have gone before you. 

 In my own life, the most pronounced consequence is my faith. It's the most blaring part of my life, my decision to be a follower of Jesus Christ. Every choice I have had to make after becoming a Christian, I have had to be conscious of the fact that I am under His lordship. Each area of my life is now dictated by what the Bible says, albeit, following it all is not always easy, but I am seeing the fruit of following the way. So, dear readers looking at your present circumstances, are you able to quickly identify the returns of the choices you have made previously?