long and winding road
LONG and WYN-ding ROHD
lɒŋ ænd ˈwaɪndɪŋ roʊdListen
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Dictionary meaning
a path to a goal that is difficult, slow, and full of unexpected turns, setbacks, and complications; a journey that proves far more demanding and circuitous than anticipated at the outset; the phrase carries the weight of The Beatles' 1970 song The Long and Winding Road, which uses the journey metaphor to convey the emotional persistence of longing and the painful accumulation of experience across time; in everyday use the long and winding road describes any protracted process — a career, a relationship, a legal case, a creative project — whose complexity, duration, and unpredictability contrast with the directness and simplicity one might have hoped for at the beginning; the phrase combines resignation with appreciation for the richness that difficulty and detour bring to the eventual destination
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