open doors don’t always stay open
there’s something dangerous about an open door.
not because it threatens us, but because it convinces us that it will wait.
we pass by it every day, telling ourselves we’ll come back when we’re ready. when we’re braver. when we’re less afraid. when the timing finally feels right.
but doors do not make promises.
they do not swear to remain open until we gather enough courage to walk through them.
they simply stand there, quietly offering us a choice.
and one day, without warning, they don’t.
that’s the part no one talks about.
we’re taught to fear closed doors, yet some of the deepest grief comes from watching an open one disappear. not because we were rejected, but because we hesitated. because we assumed there would be another morning, another chance, another version of ourselves willing to take the first step.
sometimes there is.
Get Clarence Petisme’s stories in your inbox
Join Medium for free to get updates from this writer.
sometimes there isn’t.
i think that’s why i’ve started looking at open doors differently. not with urgency, but with gratitude.
because an open door is not a guarantee. it’s a gift.
a brief invitation from life saying, “if you want this, come closer.”
and maybe that’s enough.
maybe the lesson isn’t to mourn every door that closes.
maybe it’s to honor the fact that it opened at all.
to be thankful for the chance, even if we were too afraid to take it.
to understand that some doors are meant to change us, not keep us.
because open doors don’t always stay open.
but perhaps they were never meant to.
perhaps they were only meant to remind us that, for a moment, the possibility was real.






