A girl on a path.

A long time ago, during one of the hardest chapters of my life, I met a woman who changed everything. I walked into her shop one day, a shop full of the most beautiful clothes, and asked her for a job. I wanted to be near the beauty, the fabric, the colour, the luxury. Just for a moment, as a respite from the heaviness of the world.

She gave me that job, but she gave me far more than work. She gave me perspective. She gave me drive. She gave me back the fight I thought I’d lost.

And she told me a story. I don’t remember her words exactly, but I’ve carried my version with me ever since. It plays in my head almost every day, and through my hardest times, it has kept me moving forward.

It’s the story of a girl. A girl who kept on walking.

There is a girl walking along a path. At first, the path is beautiful, sunlit, green, lined with flowers. There are wide, open spaces and places to rest under trees. It all feels calm, gentle, “meant to be.” She walks lightly, happily. But as she continues, the path begins to narrow. The trees thicken, brambles rise, flowers turn to thorns. The open glades close in, leaving her cramped and pressed into the shadows. The walk grows heavy. Fear slows her steps. The warmth of the sun fades into a chill.

At a fork, she chooses the left turn. Her gut tells her, this way this will lead me back to the sun. She follows it with hope. But the path keeps tightening, darker and darker, until she reaches a dead end. She is trapped and there she stays, for a long time. So long that she almost forgets what sunlight ever felt like.

But one day, she turns around. And she walks the other way. At first the way back is hard, tangled, shadowed, cold. She feels she is weak for making this decision. Did she fail because she didn’t reach a brighter end?

With every step, the path begins to open. The air feels lighter. The sun starts breaking through. It is still difficult, but she feels hope returning. She remembers: there is always a way back.

Eventually she reaches the fork again. This time, she chooses the other path. And though it too holds challenges, she now has experience. She knows wrong turns don’t erase progress. She knows she can go back, and try again.

Every mistake becomes a lesson. Every lesson becomes strength.

The girl keeps walking. She walks the path that feels right. She may take a wrong turn, she may face the dark again but she now carries the certainty that she can always find her way back to the light.

And so she goes on.

This story has given me so much, and I hope it can give you something too. A little light and hope on the darker days.