Title: When The Road Refuses A Map Poem by ashok jadhav

(The speaker stands at a crossroads at dusk. One path fades into mist, the other curves beyond sight. The voice is weary, reflective, resolute.)
I once believed life was a contract—
signed in advance,
sealed with effort,
delivered exactly as promised.
I believed if I planned carefully enough,
measured my steps,
counted my breaths,
the road would obey me.
How foolish certainty makes us feel powerful.
I drew straight lines on a crooked world.
I asked tomorrow to behave,
begged fate to follow instructions,
treated time like a servant
instead of the wild, breathing force it is.
I said, "This is how it will be."
Life smiled—
and answered with silence.
(Pauses, looking down.)
Storms arrived without warning.
Doors closed just as my hand reached them.
Dreams I carried like sacred vessels
slipped, shattered,
and cut me as I tried to gather the pieces.
I demanded explanations.
I demanded fairness.
I demanded control.
But the universe does not explain itself.
It moves.
It shifts.
It unfolds on its own terms.
And there—
in that ache between expectation and reality—
I learned what it means
to take life as it comes.
Not as surrender,
but as courage without armor.
(Voice steadier.)
To take life as it comes
is to wake each morning
without guarantees
and still rise.
It is to accept that some answers arrive late,
some never arrive at all,
and some come disguised as loss.
It is to walk forward
even when the fog refuses to lift,
to trust that the ground
will appear beneath the next step
only after the foot descends.
I no longer demand certainty.
Certainty is brittle.
It shatters at the first surprise.
I choose flexibility—
the strength that bends without breaking.
(Looks toward the unseen path.)
Today, I do not ask life
to be kind.
I ask myself
to be brave.
I do not insist on knowing
where this road ends.
I promise only
to walk it honestly.
When joy arrives unannounced,
I welcome it.
When grief knocks loudly,
I do not pretend I am not home.
When plans collapse,
I gather patience from the ruins.
Because to take life as it comes
is to understand this truth:
uncertainty is not the enemy—
it is the condition of being alive.
(Softens.)
The river does not know
where every turn will lead,
yet it flows.
The seed does not see the forest,
yet it grows.
And I—
I do not know what waits beyond this moment,
yet I breathe,
yet I endure,
yet I continue.
So let tomorrow arrive
however it chooses.
Let fate speak in riddles.
Let the path surprise me.
I will meet it as I am—
open-handed,
clear-eyed,
unafraid of not knowing.
Because I have learned, at last,
that life is not meant to be mastered,
only lived—
moment by moment,
as it comes.