OK, when thinking about this phrase, it’s easy to imagine our lives avoiding the mistakes we’ve made in the past. Likewise, we picture ourselves doing something different from what we’re now doing. In other words, we feel nostalgia for the past. We experience anxiety about the future. This leads to stress in the current. I believe that’s the context behind this Daily Prompt.

It doesn’t matter how many parallel universes exist (if they exist at all). We are born and we die, and that’s a constant in each and every one of those universes.

In a parallel universe, I see myself making different mistakes or celebrating different victories. In that same universe, I see myself as an architect or a photographer or a musician or a writer. Maybe I am in another place or with a different family. In each of them, I still love my family. I enjoy what I do. I’m passionate about learning and teaching.

I prefer having a safe universe. This is my current life. I choose this over dreaming of a thousand universes that exist only in my imagination. In my universe, my past doesn’t define me. The mistakes or successes I’ve had have brought me to where I want to be. In this, my only universe, the future is built day by day with every decision I make.

I don’t need parallel universes to dream of being someone different. We start building the dreams we want today. We do it here and now in this universe. It is the only real one we have.