Two roads

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood...

Thus begins one of the most famous poems of all time.  Most people key in on the last few lines.

and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Those words are captured in art, featured in speeches, and posted on knick-knacks of all kinds.

But I find myself captured by Frost's opening words:  Two roads diverged.

Diverged.

I'm a thinker. A weigher. A contemplator. An overanalyzer. An agonizer.

And it doesn't always stop after I make a decision.  Whether it's something small like posting to Instagram (yes, I overanalyze my Instagrams), or something big like contemplating a career change (who wouldn't agonize about that?).

Frost's simple opening line speaks to me.  Two roads diverged.

Look before you leap, but once you choose a path, stop agonizing.  The time for wonder and worry is past.  It's time to be committed.  To move confidently forward.  Don't look back.

Two roads diverged.  That makes all the difference.

I've been mulling the line of that poem for over a year now.  I can't tell you how...."inspirational" isn't the right world..."supportive" might be...it has been in regards to my family's decision to move forward with the brain surgery that ultimately extended my Dad's life.  We were faced with a pretty major two-road situation.  Once we leaped, there was no looking back.  But that jump, and the dedication to the path afterword, really has made all the difference.

In the early days of recovery, I know we all wondered "what if" we had chosen the other way.  But Frost's poem reassured me.  The roads diverged.  There's no use worrying or daydreaming about what might have been.  And as more information came in, it turns out that mysterious other road would have been a bleak indeed. So I'm glad we took the road we did, and that lesson to weigh but then let go has stayed with me.

Two roads diverged.  It's a powerful truth.

I wonder if might ever catch on in the knick knack world.