You can’t change the past. You can’t make the world other than it already is. You can change it for the future, but in the present you have to deal with it as you find it.
If you are walking through a field and find a fence, you can try to go over it, or walk along it, or try to cut through it, or dig under it. What you can’t do is ignore it. That’s what Aurelius means here. Any action you take to move forward must account for the fence.
How do I figure out exactly what the fence(s) if its complicated or inscrutable?
Complicated can take time, or may require asking for help. Inscrutable sometime you just have to change direction entirely, or keep trying to go around it until you no longer find yourself bumping into it.
But some fences you can’t get past, and you have to accept that, too. The way for you may be only within the bounds of the fence. You don’t have to like it when that happens, but not linking it won’t change it. Death being the classic example.
You’ll be happier if fences in general don’t make you unhappy, and that’s part of what Aurelius means, too.
