Taking a Chance on the Road Less Traveled

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
An 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.

Mandatory memorization of this poem was a requirement in 7^th grade. I don't know of any 7^th grader that was fond of memorization; but I have always remembered each and every line and punctuation mark of this poem . But as I look back on my life, this poem has made a profound impact on me. To say my parents pushed their agenda on me would be making an understatement. So when I went to college the dictum came down, I could either choose the path, "having...the better claim" the one they wanted me to take or "the one less traveled by" the one I wanted. If I choose the path, "having...the better claim" my education would be paid for. If I choose the path, "less traveled by"...well, you get the picture. "Sorry I was I could not travel both..." immobile "long I stood and looked down one as far as I could to where it bent".

I took the safe path; the only path I felt I could. "Oh, I kept the first (path) for another day. Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back". I traveled the ­­­­expected, hum drum path. It wasn't a bad life. I got married, had three wonderful children and enjoyable pets. I put up with my outlaws. Oh, pardon me I meant in-laws, although my side of the family truly wasn't any better. I also had fabulous friends. It was an ok, life but it was just ok ,it wasn't truly living. I could hear the distant echoes of the voices in my head that were there since high school. They were prodding me to "take the road less traveled by". Pursue the arts with a passion. Write, create, do textile art, recycle (I was a child of the seventy's), live life to its fullest.

That's when I began to change my life. There was another place where the road diverged in the woods. Hard as it was, for the most part my husband and our children stopped being involved with our toxic families. I realized that friends are the families that you choose. Our family began to spend holidays with our friends. I began to enjoy the light in the yellow woods more. The shadows didn't seem so dark.

Due to an illness, an unexpected twist of fate I was no longer able to work a my former job. Part of my recovery process has been to pursue those long heeded voices in my head and being again. I knew it was time to follow the path less traveled. I began self expression through poetry and prose, painting,and textile art. And although I'm less mobile than I once was, I have never felt more alive. So now I pursue life; I'm living on "the road less traveled by, and that has made all the difference."

*copyright to the Poem is held by Leslie Frost Ballantine1970