If It Doesn’t Open, It’s Not Your Door
It’s said that if it doesn’t open, it’s not your door. While I understand the meaning of the expression, it’s not necessarily the best metaphor I’ve ever heard to explain that what is meant for us will come to us- and what isn’t, won’t. Because the reality is that we will open many doors in our lives. Sometimes we’ll discover lives and loves that enhance our lives, and sometimes we’ll discover that the door we opened is a threshold we would have been better not to cross. Some doors need keys in the form of education, experience, or simply being in the right place at the right time. Other doors should be locked firmly behind us, never to be entered again, once we realize that they aren’t for us. Those doors can hold toxic relationships, poor choices, and cycles of abuse to ourselves or others.
Whether or not the door opens has nothing to do with whether it is or isn’t for us. Oftentimes, we don’t know what is for us until we try it. For instance, I earned a Master’s of Arts degree in Community Counseling. I wanted to be a counselor because I’m passionate about helping others. It wasn’t until I was in the field that I realized that it wasn’t a good fit for me. That was after a 4 year undergraduate degree and the 3 years of graduate school, which included an internship in the field. It’s not that I wasn’t good at my work; I simply realized that in addition to wanting to help…
