The Way Forward
I was forced from a very young age to make a decision far beyond my capacity to fully comprehend. A decision that would shape the rest of my life. At 22, I left my country, carrying nothing but a deep, unspoken knowing that I had to go. To this day, part of me looks back, trying to grasp that invisible force—the one that compels us to move mountains, cross continents, and make life-altering choices without the ability to predict their consequences.
Not wanting to be unhappy is not the same as believing we deserve happiness. But it is a start. A solid start. A first step, but not the last.
Out of immense pain, there is always a seed of potential for great joy. Yet, we beat ourselves down, convinced we are deserving of pain, unworthy of our biggest dreams. But within each of us, no matter how lost or broken we feel, there is something that still points north. A compass buried under the weight of time, rusted by doubt, battered by storms—but still, it points north.
This compass never stops working, no matter how much we ignore it. It waits for us to realize that we cannot hold two opposing beliefs at once. We cannot simultaneously believe we deserve happiness and believe we do not. One must go. Holding both is exhausting, confusing, and unreal.
Believing that you are a compass, always pointing in the right direction, is what carries you through the worst of storms. And even when you lose hope, even when you refuse to see it, that part of you does not fade. Sooner or later, you will have to drop the pain. You will have to let it go if you truly want to be free.
We are all carrying a compass in our pockets, even when we don’t realize it. Especially when we don’t realize it.
And maybe, just maybe, the real work is not about locking the door to keep fear out—but about unlocking something deeper. About trusting that even in the darkest of times, our inner compass still knows the way forward. About knowing, truly knowing, that we deserve to be happy.
