#missysmadchallenge #112
Your challenge for this week
The map said nothing about the detours that would save me.
Missy’s MAD Challenge # 112
#missysmadchallenge
The Roads That Weren’t on the Map
#missysmadchallenge
The map said nothing about the detours that would save me.
It showed the straight roads.
The sensible ones.
The roads everyone told me I should take.
There were neat little lines connecting one destination to another, as though life could be folded into a glove compartment and understood at a glance.
Start here.
Turn there.
Arrive safely.
Nobody had marked the places where the road would disappear beneath my feet.
There were no warning signs for heartbreak.
No symbols for grief.
No dotted lines showing where dreams would change direction.
Nothing said,
Here you will lose something you thought you couldn’t live without.
Or,
Here you will discover that you can.
So when life first pushed me off the road I had carefully planned, I thought I was lost.
I tried to find my way back.
Again and again.
Back to the person I had been.
Back to the plans I had made.
Back to the future I thought was waiting for me.
But some roads disappear for a reason.
Eventually, I stopped asking,
How do I get back?
And started asking,
Where does this road go?
That’s when everything changed.
The detours introduced me to people I would never have met.
They took me to places I would never have chosen.
They taught me things no straight road ever could.
I learned that starting again isn’t the same as failing.
That leaving can sometimes be an act of survival.
That home isn’t always where you expected to find it.
That love can arrive after you’ve stopped believing in maps.
That grief can change you without destroying you.
That a voice can be found precisely because someone once tried to silence it.
And that sometimes the thing which looks like the end of the road is simply where you have to begin making your own.
Looking back, I can see intersections I didn’t recognise at the time.
One decision.
One unexpected meeting.
One goodbye.
One yes.
One no.
Tiny moments that quietly redirected an entire life.
Had everything gone according to plan, I wouldn’t be standing where I am now.
And strangely, that thought doesn’t frighten me anymore.
Because perhaps life was never supposed to be one straight journey from beginning to destination.
Perhaps we need the winding roads.
The wrong turns.
The places where we pull over and cry because we have absolutely no idea where we are.
Even the occasional moment when we shout at the universe,
This is NOT where I was going! 😂
Because somewhere along those roads, we change.
We become stronger.
Softer.
Wiser.
More ourselves.
And one day, we look behind us and realise that the road we cursed for taking us away from everything familiar also carried us away from something we needed to leave behind.
The map couldn’t have shown me that.
Maps only tell you how to reach a destination.
They cannot tell you which journey will change you.
So these days, I still make plans.
I still choose a direction.
I still like knowing roughly where I’m going.
But when life puts up another unexpected DETOUR sign, I don’t automatically assume I’m lost.
I have travelled enough unmarked roads to know better.
Somewhere ahead may be another version of me I haven’t met yet.
And perhaps one day I’ll look back at this road too and whisper,
Thank goodness I didn’t go the way I planned.
The map said nothing about the detours that would save me.
Maybe it couldn’t.
Some roads only make sense when you look back.
#missysmadchallenge #Detours #LifeJourney #WritingPrompt #TheAfterloveVoice
My new song is out on streaming platforms 💜
https://ditto.fm/silenced-but-not-broken
With love, coffee, poetry, and stardust,
— Maggie The Afterlove Voice 💫
If you want a reading, send me an email:
Leave a comment