This card by Mary Engelbreit was given to me in 1986 when I was moving from Southern to Northern California. I was at a fork in the road. I was leaving one life and one relationship and starting new geography, life and love. One direction was my new life. One way was no longer an option. This card has spoken to me over and over at various intersections of my life.

Many of us are at a crossroads right now. I read that a Pew Research Center survey this year found that 66 percent of the unemployed had “seriously considered” changing their field of work. By some estimates, 1 in 4 workers is planning to look for opportunities with a new employer once the threat of the pandemic has subsided. We are reconsidering relationships, where we live and how we live, and how we love ourselves and others. It takes what it takes for us to stop what we are doing and say, Is this what makes my heart sing? Is this for my highest good?

You might be aware of cycles in your life. I have big 33 year cycles, and am embarking on my third cycle of 33 years. We take everything that has happened in our lives with us into our new chapters, and at some point, we don’t need to keep looking back. Sometimes, as the signpost on the card says with the wise owl atop, one way is no longer an option. Another way is your life now. At this intersection, I wonder what the life I’m headed into will look like.

I have smaller cycles too. I hear guidance when I’m asking my angels and guides about my next step. They may give me a date – May 1 was the last date. That’s it, just a date. Short and sweet. Sure enough, May 1 brought an answer I needed to move forward in ease. The next message I heard was September 1, and then I was shown something that made that date make sense. Now I’m hearing the end of the year . . . .

We don’t have to know what’s coming up for us. It’s very uncomfortable for humans to stand in the middle of not knowing. But it’s also very freeing, because everything is somehow always moving to the good and when we don’t know how something will unfold or where we’re heading, everything is possible.

The consistent guidance I hear is, Just show up, just keep on keeping on. So I do, every day, and eventually I reach a fork in the road. As I pause at the crossroads, I am 51% sure which way is my life now, and which way is no longer an option. And I’m much better now about not looking back.