“I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less travelled by,

And that has made all the difference.”

These words from Robert Frost’s famous poem, The Road Not Taken, have always meant a lot to me.  Time has revealed some additional truths in the wisdom of his words:  the less travelled road may be one you were on decades ago, but abandoned, and others sometimes cover the trail you made so others don’t know you had been there.  Be those as they may, you must follow your path.

There will be times that you chart a path in life and you’ll have a déjà vu like feeling, as if you had been there.  For example, I am on a path now that harkens to trails I tracked more than four decades ago.  I see the path anew and navigate with the wisdom of many years, but the familiarity of the direction is comforting and the adventure of cutting through creative and emotional underbrush is exhilarating.  I suspect you have long lost paths that beckon to you, too.

I have also discovered that people frequently want to discount or hide the reality of another’s presence.  This rewriting of history, for whatever reason, reminds us that no matter how much we want to make an imprint with our life’s efforts, that legacy is likely not under our control.  I have seen this too many times, people brushing the tracks of the people who forged paths, removing evidence of anyone’s footprints but their own.  This, too, can be seen in all aspects of life.

Even if it is only you saying such with a sigh about your choice of paths, remember that your choices make all the difference.  Life is full of paths to choose from; be happy and at peace on your journey.

(First published in Listen to Life newsletter, October 26, 2014.  Subscribe at Dion@DionMcInnis.com.)