The Road Not Taken

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.

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same.

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

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 traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Robert Frost

* * *

This poem by Robert Frost, is one of my personal favorites because it hits close to home. I am also a traveler, with an ongoing, almost twenty five year journey. At some point, I can't help but think of all the 'roads' I have taken and not taken. I have learned that most roads go only one way. As soon as one decides to take a road, there is indeed no turning back. Even though one can always change paths farther along the way, the road that has been trod cannot be untrod. There are no u-turn slots, detours and shortcuts.

Choosing one road over another can make all the difference. I wonder where I would be today had I decided to take another road. Sometimes I feel the longing for taking another road, discovering new alleyways, unbeaten tracks, unknown corridors and hallways. And yet sometimes, I can't dare to leave the path I am taking, afraid to lose sight of the familiar and the comfortable.

So I keep marching on into the wilderness of uncertainty, hoping that I have chosen the right path. Where will this road take me? Twenty five years hence, If I'd be telling this with a sigh, - that I have taken the road less traveled by and it has made all the difference - would it be a sigh of contentment and happiness or a sigh of despair and misery?