My most favorite poem

Skip the poem if you’re in a hurry.

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

We take the other road every day.  Sometimes we diverge a little, sometimes greatly, and once in a while we choose a road so different that many think we are moving backward.

I am on Sabbatical. For a long time I believed I was taking a break.  It is looking more like I wandered off onto a completely different path. It felt bad for a long time.  I wondered why I couldn’t keep up with the traffic on that road, and why it seemed like I was always taking the wrong exits, getting lost, being blocked in or completely driven off of the road.  A rest stop seemed like a solution. The metaphorical rest stop led to a scenic byway.

As I travel down this unexpected road, and I contemplate what put me here my perspective changes.  I was looking back at an accident scene. A crash I thought I might not survive.  It doesn’t look like an accident from this distance.  Now I am left wondering what to call my course change

People recognize the idea of a breakdown or a crash.  They might not understand or forgive it, but it is familiar. But do people truly understand a crossroads?  If I say before my breakdown they immediately understand my language.  What in our language positively describes changing direction?  Is there a simple way to say, “I was on the wrong path, but I was shown a new one, better fit for me and my needs?”

I took the road less traveled by…