Jonah ran the opposite way and still ended up exactly where he was sent. Detours aren’t exits.

Booking passage in the opposite direction did not stop the story ending with him standing in the city he was avoiding. The running was real and so was the delay. What it did not do was cancel the thing. Avoidance buys time at a high price, and whatever you are dodging usually waits.

Name what you have been going the long way round for weeks: a conversation, an application, an apology, a subject you dropped. Do the first five minutes of it today. The dread is almost always larger than the task.