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 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.

Robert Frost*

Three years ago today, I truly took the road less traveled.  With my best friend Cara at my side and Sage and Saxton in the back, we took off on a snowy, icy and very cold 27 hour drive from Colorado to Washington.  Leaving that day was probably one of the most emotional days in my life.  Driving away from two of my babies and my home in order to try and bring peace to all our lives, was a gut wrenching decision and the hardest one that I have ever made.  I do believe though, that blessings can bloom from heartbreak and the journey that I began that day has truly changed my life.  I have since given birth to my little Max and last week my new husband and I celebrated our one year anniversary.    

People will always question your chosen paths, but ultimately it comes down to you and listening to your heart when making those decisions.  The choice I made three years ago was a life changing and saving one.  Many of us, myself included, are guilty of smiling on the outside, while hurting on the inside.  In the day and age of Facebook, where we are masters of our own design and can pick and choose how the outside world sees us, it is up to us to decide how much of our true selves and life we allow others to see.  It has been so freeing for me to share this journey and my continued hope is that through this blog, I can find the courage to be my true self, while also helping others to do the same.  

I think that we can all look back in our lives and think of moments when we were at a crossroads and faced with two choices.  When there was an easier, more comfortable path versus a more difficult one.  I have chosen both in my life. However, when I "took the one less traveled by" it did make "all the difference."     

*"The Road Not Taken" is a poem by Robert Frost, published in 1916 in the collection Mountain Interval.