The Lantern and the Unfinished Map

A traveller once found a map that ended halfway across the page. Beyond a narrow bridge, the paper was blank.

She waited for a better map, but none arrived. At last she lit a lantern and crossed the bridge. The light showed only a few steps ahead, yet those steps were enough. Each time she moved, the road revealed a little more of itself.

By dawn she understood why the map was unfinished. No mapmaker could draw the choices she had not made yet.

She folded the blank page carefully and kept it. It was no longer a missing answer. It was room for the journey.