The path that forms from return is the only path that lasts.

Enough people walk the same direction, enough times, and the ground yields. The grass parts. The soil compresses. The path forms itself out of repetition.

That’s how defaults form. In markets. In institutions. In cultures. In the habits we inherit without choosing them. By repetition alone.

The behavior repeated enough times becomes the expected behavior. The expected behavior becomes the only behavior most people consider. The worn path looks like the right path because the ground already knows it.

The path remembers.

Photo by me. Vermont.