Moving Forward

I’m trying to practise my writing and find a slot that I can use daily in preparation of ‘Story a day September’ that is just round the corner and my lovely friend and fellow writer Tammy (Check out her blog here), is helping me out with some writing prompts that I can use😊 Thank you so much, for the effort Tammy!! I hope I put it to good use😊🙏

So I wrote on today’s writing prompt of ‘Moving Forward’. I would love to read your thoughts on what moving forward means to you 😊

When I think of moving forward, I think of trying to do it in a positive way. How can I live my day better tomorrow, or how can I make my tomorrow better? Because what else is moving forward, if not living another day to see what future has in store for you?

 

We don’t have a choice to not move forward. The only other option is death. And some would say, death in itself is a journey and not a stagnation, or not one that takes you backwards. Some say, that death leads you to another life, another option, where you could start all over again. So maybe, in those terms, dying would be moving backwards. Just like the direction you choose to sit in a train. If you sit facing the direction of the travel, it seems as if you’re moving forward and leaving everything else behind, whereas, if you sit on the opposite side to the direction of the train, it would seem like you’re moving backwards, or that everyone else is crossing you faster, as if in a time reversal video feed.

 

Moving forward can mean many things, we could take it literally, such as walking an extra step, moving forward in a line or a queue, moving forward inch by inch when you’re stuck in a traffic jam. It could mean moving forward by living your life, by overcoming a fear, or the grief of the loss of a loved one, or the sorrow of a tragedy. It could be moving forward alone, or moving forward together, as a couple, or a family, or as a nation. 

 

Sometimes, it feels almost impossible to move forward. I had felt that when I lost my father. I just wanted the time to stand still and let me always be immersed in my grief, and in the fact that I would never see his sweet smiling face again. But time doesn’t wait for anyone. It doesn’t wait for the healthy, and it doesn’t wait for the ill. It doesn’t wait for the old and sometimes it doesn’t wait for the young either. Time is always moving forward and as far as we know, going back in time is still science fiction.

 

But I wonder, if one had a choice to be able to turn back time, what would we choose? I know there are many times when I want to re-live my past. But only the happier moments of my past, and not all the struggles and the doubtful moments that I had in my past. Would people want to move backwards? If there was an option to be stuck in a particular time loop, would people choose a particular time in their life and move backwards to re-live that time over and over again? What happens when you have lived that life so many times that now, there is no happiness in that past anymore? But then, people would say, that maybe it will be better, if we are able to live a particular time over and over again, without having a memory of it when it is over. But then, the argument could be that what if one of our selves, who went back, didn’t like that particular time anymore? Their choice of moving backwards would only bring them pain.

 

But moving forward can always have a positive connotation to it. Because, moving forward is about an unseen, unknown future, where although there could be some anxiety or fear, there is mostly hope and lots of possibilities. And I like to have hope and possibility, of a future. A content future. It is silly to hope that nothing will go wrong, and that the future will be better than the present or the past. Sometimes, it is better, and sometimes, it feels just like the past, just with different challenges and different things to be joyful and grateful for.

 

Moving forward in the life, also means to age. And while, I know that tomorrow is another day full of possibilities, and that tomorrow could be better, I also know, that with each tomorrow, I’m getting a day older. And then, there will be a day, when there will be no more moving forward for me. I believe, at present at least, that this is my only life. But there are others who believe, in having many eternities in their favorite place, or in heaven, where they will in a sense, stop moving forward. Then there are others who believe in the circle of life and that death leads to going backwards and being born again and living the whole life all over again. So I think I will embrace my ageing, and strive to move forward.

 

So what comes to your mind when you think of moving forward? Does it bring hope and excitement or fear and anxiety?