Following The Road Less Traveled
“Two roads diverged in a wood and I — I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.” Robert Frost
“Life is not a given, it’s a gift.”
Throughout life, we reach a fork in the road, a point where a decision must be made. I usually chose this road less traveled, the path others would not take.
When I was younger, everyone I knew was concerned with school, going to college, high-paying jobs … the future. Their goal: find a way to make as much money as possible in order to retire in 50 years and hopefully enjoy their last few years.
Think about that. Spending your entire life working at something so you might be happy for 5, 10, or 20 years? The alternative is to enjoy your entire life. Some are fortunate. They chose the road less traveled.
A few have chosen one of those roads less traveled and focused on creating adventures, and enjoying the challenges. Starting a small business as opposed to that corporate desk job with benefits. Deciding not to bust your butt making money for someone else's retirement. Putting yourself in charge of your life.
Most are afraid to make this leap. They lack faith in themselves. They make excuses. They avoid choosing that path in the forest or that trail in the desert that seems to lead to nowhere. Most, when they reach the point where two roads diverge in the wood and a decision is required, turn around.
I have always said I will never retire. Retire from what? Work? Life? If you work at something you enjoy, if life is good, then retirement becomes defined as what?
“I’ve busted my ass for (fill in the #) years to be lazy and unproductive.” This is NOT taking the road less traveled. This is the road everyone else travels. This was where I parted ways with almost everyone I knew.
Your life, your future, is not a given, it’s a gift. It can and will end at any time. My Dad died at 58. My two brothers died young, both at about 60. The decisions we make, the roads we choose throughout life when we come to that spot in the wood where two roads diverge, should have meaning.
- Take chances. Choose that single-lane gravel road and not the six-lane highway. Sure it’s a slower trip, but then you never know what’s around every bend, every curve in the road. That’s the adventure.
- Live for the moment daily. Make the most of every second of every day, not just for yourself but for those around you. Living a life that makes you happy, allows you to spread that to others with a simple smile or greeting. It can change lives.
- Don’t take anything in life for granted. Life can and will change at any given second of any day. My life, in a matter of weeks, changed forever. Something happens and suddenly you’re homeless, you’re unemployed, and you own nothing but the clothes on your back. I know this from experience.
Today, friends going back 50 years or more are retired, have loaded bank accounts, and sip wine and cocktails at 5 0'clock..
They spent their lives working, often at jobs they grew to dislike. Those with tales of adventures chose their own road less traveled. The rest don’t know what they missed.
Where is the road less traveled?
Today, this road leads to my new home, to a little house at the top of a mountain on an acre plus of land… at the end of a gravel road traveled by very few.
Climbing and meandering slowly (15 to 30 mph) up the mountain, past collapsed old buildings and barns from 100 years or more ago, past old single-wide trailers with multiple vehicles that seem to be growing in and a part of these deep forests. An entirely new world for the uninitiated awaits.
Dirt and gravel roads pass slowly by, disappearing into the forest. No longer is there any sense of direction. There is just a tiny old wood sign indicating a dirt and gravel road called Dockery Creek. It too disappears up a steep incline into the woods.
My marker for finding this road is an old weather-beaten, wood cabin with a collapsed front porch, deserted many decades ago. An old tire leans against the porch. Located next to it is an equally old one-room church. I’ve reached my destination… my “road in the wood, less traveled”.
This narrow, dark, single lane of dirt and gravel is entirely hidden as it disappears into the woods. One passes more very old single wides, more old and abandoned wood shacks and sheds, and an occasional cabin or house along the road. All are hidden in the summer, swallowed whole by the forest.
Now you’re anxious, even frightened. I was. And at night, there are no lights, no street lights, just darkness … pitch-black darkness.
Following this century-old-plus dirt and gravel road, still winding and climbing even steeper hills up the mountain, I reach my retirement. I’m home.
At the end of “The Road Less Traveled”. I’m where I was meant to be. I’m where it all started, following unknown roads to unknown places, roads less traveled.
Throughout my life, when … “Two roads diverged in a wood and I — I took the one less traveled by … that has made all the difference.”
