Road Less Traveled

I was thinking the other day about the Robert Frost poem about two roads in the woods. If you aren’t sure what I’m talking about here it is:

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.

I had to learn that poem when I was in middle school and for some reason it stuck with my always. That one and another about a little broken bird are two that I remember. One because it was so sad and heartbreaking, especially for a young girl, and the other because it was how I saw life even at a young age. I knew that every step and every day was like that fork in the road. You had a choice to take the easy road that is well traveled or forge ahead on a path that was uncertain.

There have been times when I have stayed the course because the untraveled road seemed far too dark and uncertain. For me, those moments were the ones where the darkness of the path told me that choosing the easier, well traveled was the best course of action.

Other times, and I like to think most of the time, I have plowed my way through my own path. Not the ones laid out in front of me as a choice but one that only I saw. One that led me to where I am today. I will say that my road has led me to nothing but pain, hurt, and despair. Those were the moments that I crawled back into the easy path. Or maybe I veered onto the less traveled but less rough path.

It has taken me years to be happy with myself and love myself. Being overweight, shy, and introverted never made that easy for me. Now, at my age, I can happily tell someone where to shove it when they if I should really eat that or the waitress who tells me that she made my drink diet and my dressing light since I looked like I needed that. Typically they get a “bless your heart” and then I set them straight.

I am who I am and my untraveled road is what makes that way. I don’t have to please anyone above myself and I do that daily. I have learned the power of the word no and tomorrow is another day full of worries so to leave yesterday’s where they were. Each day is a choice and I am thankful for each one that God gives me.