The World Is Not a Logical Place
And I’m not sure who’s writing the script, but they’ve got jokes.
Dear Belle,
Have you ever heard the saying, “Life is lived forward but understood backwards”?
It always stuck with me. Probably because it explains so much of what doesn’t make sense in real time, like how sometimes the job you didn’t get opens the door to the one that changes your whole path. Or how the person you thought would love you forever exits without warning, and somehow, years later, you find yourself quietly grateful they did. Or like why we pour our hearts into something and still feel stuck. Or why the moment we think life is about to lift us, we find ourselves… lowered, quite literally, in both bank account and energy levels. 😂
We live forward, heart first, feet stumbling, wide-eyed and unsure. But we only understand when we look back.
Which makes me think… maybe the world isn’t built to be logical.
I say this as someone currently living that contradiction.
A few months ago, I took a job thinking it would elevate me, you know, career glow-up, financial breakthrough, new tax bracket Belle. What I didn’t anticipate was the stress, the physical tiredness, the mental clutter, and the emotional weariness that crept in slowly and then decided to stay like it’s paying rent (spoiler alert: it’s not).
Now I’m working so hard I can barely spell rest, let alone do it. And don’t get me started on the financial “lift.” Let’s just say if we were using elevators as metaphors, mine’s been stuck between floors for a while now. 😩
But maybe that’s the thing.
We live life expecting logic: input leads to output. Hard work equals reward. Right decision equals right result. But the world? Not a spreadsheet. More like one of those indie films that leaves you staring at the credits going, “Wait, what just happened?”
“Life is lived forward but understood backward.” - Søren Kierkegaard
We’re taught to look for patterns, to connect the dots, to make decisions that “make sense.” But so much of life doesn’t make sense, at least not right away.
People leave too soon. Good work goes unnoticed. The kindest souls carry the heaviest loads. And the most random, accidental choices end up shaping our entire lives.
We want life to be neat. Predictable. Balanced.
But it’s more like a poem, not a math problem.
It flows and swerves. It rhymes where you didn’t expect it to. It leaves blanks you have to fill in. And sometimes, it just ends with no clear conclusion.
That doesn’t mean you’re doing it wrong.
It just means you’re human, and the story you’re living is bigger than any logic can hold.
So if you’re in a chapter right now that feels confusing, scattered, or incomplete… If you're in a season that feels a little upside down, like you're giving more than you're getting or doing everything “right” but still wondering why you feel so wrong, you're not alone. You’re not lost. You’re just mid-story. And maybe the clarity will come later, not all at once, but in quiet realizations and hindsight grace.
Because the truth is, life isn’t always logical. But it is layered. It is unfolding. It is meaningful, even when it’s messy.
We only ever understand the dots when we look back and connect them. Right now, we’re still drawing.
So breathe.
So live forward.
Ask your questions. Sit in the discomfort. Take the risk.
Take the nap you think you haven’t “earned.”
Cry if you need to. Laugh if you can. Rage-text your best friend, and then go eat something sweet.
Because the truth is, life isn’t always logical. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t worth living fully, wildly, anyway.
Keep going, even if you’re not sure where “up” is anymore.
Sometimes, survival is the success.
And when it doesn’t make sense, trust that one day, it might.
Backward.