Two Roads

I remember my first encounter with Robert Frost’s poem “The Road Not Taken”.  It was an assignment in 6^th or 7^th grade and I was not impressed.  Aunt Karen (we referred to adults as aunts and uncles) was introducing me to different styles of poetry.

I expected the rhyming and flow to be different so I didn’t know how to read it.  But I loved the message and it has stuck with me for years.

We make choices throughout life that take us down different paths.  Sometimes we come full circle and get to try another option.  But even then, our experiences influence whether we take the other path or how we perceive whatever we encounter down that path.  Whether we repeat a path or take a new one, it’s not the exact same experience.

But that’s not really my point.  What I especially love about this poem is the selection of the path less frequented.  It’s taking a risk.  Volunteering for an adventure.  Not that the worn path is necessarily safe, but that taking a chance on the unknown is that much more appealing.  Worth the effort.

And THAT has made all the difference.

THE ROAD NOT TAKEN by Robert Frost 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;	5
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,	10
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.	15
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.