Marble Run

Sometimes my life feels like a marble going down a run.

Mostly I am just rolling, rolling onwards. Sometimes faster, sometimes slower; sometimes the angle is steep and I build up momentum, feeling the wind in my marbley hair; sometimes it's so near-flat that I'm barely moving forward.

At the moments of stagnation I fight to propel myself (or so it feels) to the next part where the path gets steep again and I can build some momentum, because I'm some kind of magic marble that can direct itself sometimes, when it gathers all its energies, even if mostly it just goes with the flow.

A handful of times in my life I've mustered all my energies and tried to jump the run entirely, tried to cross into another life.

Is that possible? I'm not sure. So far it's never quite worked – I've always fallen back into the person I was before.

Which, to be clear, is an extremely fortunate marble; if this is my run I'm grateful for it. I just wish I understood if it's possible to choose your own path, at all, or if you're just meant to relax and enjoy the ride.