The Road Not Taken

“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 is probably my favorite poem of all time. Definitely in the top three, but I have always read it thinking that he was taking the road less traveled and that he benefitted so greatly from the experience. Today I read that Frost's biographer, Thompson, has suggested that the poem's narrator is 'one who habitually wastes energy in regretting any choice made: belatedly but wistfully he sighs over the attractive alternative rejected." Thompson also says that when introducing the poem in readings, Frost would say that the speaker was based on his friend Thomas. In Frost's words, Thomas was "a person who, whichever road he went, would be sorry he didn't go the other. He was hard on himself that way."

My first thought was ‘what a waste of time to regret that you didn’t go right at the fork - you don’t know that it would have worked out any differently or better for that matter”. My second thought was “Wow, I have been worried this whole time that selling our home in Demarest and that choosing this path could be the wrong one….” I laughed at myself. What a waste of time.  Here I am again.  This is the theme.  It isn’t about the destination. It is about the journey.

It is about taking the time to stop and breathe in all that is around you in the present. Enjoying the beauty and the moment. Most importantly the people who are standing next to you on the path.