I've enjoyed poetry most of my life. I remember reading goofy poetry as a child, and as a teen collecting books of poetry from the more famous writers. I've kept my own poetry journals for as long as I can remember. I have always especially liked this poem by Robert Frost. I just "get" his work. It makes sense to me.
" Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth " (Can't you just picture yourself there? Standing in the woods....wondering which way you should go?)
This sums things up so well for me, in so many ways. For each of us, our choices, our decisions in life, lead us down a road. We have choices each day about what we are going to do. Decisions that seem so small and insignificant at the time can subtlety change our path, our course, the direction our lives take.
"...Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back." (Yep. I get this. Don't we think we could do something different later, but we are lazy and we don't.)
Do you ever dream? Do you expand your borders? Do you wake up to the possibilities? You know it doesn't really matter whether you are 4, 14, or 84....or anywhere in between. As long as you have breath, you can choose the road that you are traveling down. It seems like it would be easy, but the truth is (as I can well attest) sometimes the journey is just hard. It is also painful. The pack on my back, is heavy. It weighs me down. I wish I would have packed lighter, for this trip. Other days the road is easy...I might even skip down the road...I realize just how good I have it.
I choose the path less traveled. Some days my trip is tiresome and I'm desperate for new scenery. I plod ahead. One foot in front of the other. I wonder if I'll ever see anything new or exciting. Then the day comes, I top the hill and I look out across the most beautiful sight my eyes could imagine. I hold this image in my heart, my view on that day makes the journey worthwhile. I remember that day, when I'm farther down the road. It keeps me going.
Life is interesting like that . Isn't it that way for all of us? The ups and the downs. The successes, the failures. The commitments, the regrets. I realize that my journey must encompass all these things. My road has to have bumps and dangers in it, as well as smooth, flat areas. It keeps the trip down the road much more interesting, and as the traveler, makes me much more strong and capable and empathetic.
"...two roads diverged in a wood, and I-,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference." (That really says it all, doesn't it?)
As much as I enjoy Robert Frost...there is another man I enjoy more. His name is Paul. Paul's life changed forever one day when he was on a road. The road to Damascus. That is the day Paul met Jesus---in person. After that day, on that road, Paul was never the same. How could he be? That day, he knew what it was to really live. He never looked back. His road was not easy. Threatened. Imprisoned. Beaten. And yet, while held as a prisoner in Rome, realizing his days were few, he wrote this to his friend, Timothy.......
"I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith." 2 Timothy 4:7
AMEN.
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