The Road Not Taken

AS I REFLECT on my life it is clear that when I have taken the road less traveled, the road has usually been rockier, but undoubtedly has proven to be the most rewarding of the two. So why then do I not pick that road to begin with! Like Steven Covey says, "Begin with the end in mind". Knowing how rewarding the end will be, why do I still choose the more frequented path more often! As I venture out into singlehood again after choosing to end a 14 year marriage, I wonder how my life would have been had I only taken the road less traveled back then. At the ripe old age of 24, I felt I could conquer the world & thus nobody could tell me that I was making the biggest mistake of my life - well, they could have, but I wouldn't have listened. The adage, "Love is all that matters" (I'm laughing hysterically even writing that) how foolish a thought! Kiddos, hate to break it to you, but love is NOT enough...but that's a whole other post.  "Had I only"..."should have"..."If things had been"...all the things I have said over & over to make sense of the years I spent trodding down the wrong path...or was it? Perhaps it was the road I was supposed to take in order to arrive at the remarkable place I am at right now - to arrive back at the beginning with the chance to make a new choice. Dear Mr. Frost, I think your take has a loop-hole, an opportunity for a do-over, a Plan B. I am courageous, hopeful, observant, adventurous & do I dare say, happy & all this has come from my experiences on the frequented path of popular choice & only now am I again ready to take the road less traveled & the journey to here has made all the difference!

Click on the poem to read in full size.

Are We There Yet

I'M A FREAK for adventures &, like a dog & their bone, my tail-wag'n worthy bone is a roadtrip. Anytime, anyplace, anyone - well almost! People who smoke inside the car or hang their bare feet out the window, no go! An open highway, windows down, singing along to 80's music, always fashionable roof rack with more luggage than necessary & a small cooler with fruit that will get soggy before hour five - doesn't get much better than that! As early as age eight I remember roadtrip'n to visit family & friends. It is funny that, what to my parents seemed a most hideous & least desirable, but oh so necessary mode of transportation for a large family of eight on a middle class income, is MY preferred method of vacation transportation. Crazier still, this was all before iPods, DS's & portable DVD players. What DID six kids do to entertain ourselves through 15+ hour drives in a seatbeltless, faux wood-paneled station wagon & later in a green (think girl scout uniform) Travelall (nicknamed the Beast) with coordinating mommade green gingham curtains? Ahhhh sweet memories of...the license plate game that left us kids with bruised arms from punching points...the reminiscent sound of yet another semi-truck horn in relay to our pulling motion - though it may have been the twentieth time that HOUR, we still loved it as if it were the first...bottomless supply of cassette tapes (& even some 8 track tapes) since it was too painful to wait while one would rewind in order to listen to it again...mutiny against my dad in order to get bathroom relief...hostile takeovers from my mom for "sleep swerve close-call" number 82...hours of Mad Libs, Go Fish & those car books with the white pen/orange cap that would magically reveal the answers after rubbing the pen over a blank space. All this while six kids yelled out "ARE WE THERE YET" at least six times per hour (that would be once per kid, minimum). Love it! All of it! Crave it! Gotta have it! The blacktop is calling to me - ROADTRIP, ROADTRIP, ROADTRIP...

Pictured: Dylan Greco