The One Less Traveled By

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 “Leaving for our walk – looking to see what we can learn today,” I called to my husband as I ran out the door.  I had no idea what Suzie, Riley (my golden retrievers), and I would learn, but was confident that something would surely bubble up.

I decided to tromp through the tree-covered acreage adjacent to us.  Remembering all too well my coyote-dog incident last week, it felt “safe” to head this direction.  Soon we came to a road, and I asked myself, “What about tromping through this other woods?”  Something caused me to hesitate for just a moment, but I decided to go anyway.  What a gorgeous morning.  The birds were happily singing and a woodpecker was working away in the crisp morning air.  Buds and teeny tiny leaves set about breaking forth, following a long winter’s nap.

We followed a pathway into the woods till we came to a fork in the path.  “Do I continue to go the “safer” path (closer to the road), or do I take the path covered with overgrowth, adventuring deeper into the woods?  Again I hesitated, but just for a moment before heading down the path less traveled by.  Nevermind that the crows began cawing like crazy.  The deeper we walked, the more they cawed.  The thought crossed my mind, “Are you trying to caution me about something?  If so, thank you for that message.  I will be careful, but today I feel drawn to take this path less traveled by.”

As I carefully kept watch to the right and to the left, I was drawn to the words of Robert Frost in his beautiful poem “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 kept 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.

  

 

The cleared path from fallen trees revealed that someone had ventured into these woods since the last time we visited.  Ah, but who would be out in these isolated woods on a Monday morning at daybreak?  All would be well.  As we pushed farther into the bowels of the woods, soon the water from the stripper pit became visible off in the distance.  As we rounded the bend, I found my answer.  Through the break in the foliage just up ahead all I could see was a cooler sitting on the bank.  Softly we made an about face and ran hard back out of the woods before our intrusion would be noticed. 

Where will your path lead you today?  Something will bubble up and tell you which to take.  As for me,

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 24th, 2009 at 1:06 pm and is filed under Lessons from Nature. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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