Two roads diverged in a yellow wood…
While I am not known for being a particularly sentimental person, “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost has always been my favorite poem. To me, it is (and has been) a mantra to live by: make a decision and move on; don’t fret over the decisions in the past.
This week, I have been on travel in Washington DC for meetings. When I travel alone, I find myself contemplating all the other what could have been’s in life (contrary to the mantra). In the end, I arrive at the same conclusion: I probably could have taken many different turns along the way, but nothing tells me where I am is better or worse than where I could have been.
While I know there are many roads ahead, as I get to each divergence, I will hold the hand of my wife, look down each, and weigh the pros and cons. Eventually, we will choose together and move on. Maybe eventually, we will come back and see what was on the other path, but I doubt it.
How do you choose your road?
Travel for work allows a lot of time to think – I just had a week underway with a couple of empty days in the middle. I sometimes wonder how things would be different if I made other choices. But I always come to the conclusion that I needed to follow the path I took (for good and bad – and at times it has been a long journey) – I would be a different person if I took a different path. I don’t know if it is even possible to look down the other path once on your path – I think one is changed by just choosing a path – so the other choice will never look the same.