Vision: The Road Not Taken

"Your vision will become clear only when you look into your heart. Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside, awakens."

~ Carl Jung, psychologist

Nether Lands by Dan Fogelberg
http://youtu.be/ePrQFaB50w0

The first time I heard this song I thought of the poem "The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost. It is a favorite of mine.

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 marked 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.

There have been times in my life when I have "stood at a fork in the road" and had to decide which road I was going to take. Should I play it safe and take the road that was the most "well traveled", and follow the crowd? Or should I take the "one less traveled" that seemed to lead to something unchartered, unknown and even a little bit scarey - but somehow just felt right. Admittedly, I have take some of both, but the roads that I feel I have learned and grown the most were the "one(s) less traveled by". I have tried to listen to and trust my feelings and my heart. I have chosen to "look inside", to pray and listen for what my heart and mind feels is right, and then take an action that followed those feelings. Sometimes the ends of those roads were more obvious when I started out at the beginning than others. But by making the "harder choices", by choosing "the road not taken", I have learned (and am still learning) to trust my instincts, trust myself, and trust in God and His plan for me - and that brings me peace. Sometimes the hardest part is the deciding, but once the decision is made and I feel peace then I could move forward with confidence and "my vision became my release". "When you learn to trust yourself, then you will know how to live" (Goethe) - "and that has made all the difference".