"The Road Less Traveled"

Sometimes I wish I could turn off my heart. And, yet, I know how miserable life is not being able to feel. For most of my life I’ve been “accused” of being too sensitive. In a world where all too often deep emotions are unappreciated and seen as inappropriate, being one who feels deeply has not been easy. Mine has often been a lonely path much like the one described by Robert Frost.

The Road Not Taken

BY ROBERT FROST

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.

A few years ago, I experienced the greatest shock of my life. In the process of adjusting to the changes brought about by this shock, I began to shut off myself from my emotions. I was so successful that, earlier this year, someone described me as the most “Zen” person they knew. I was a bit taken aback by that. Those who have known me my whole life would have thought I’d been possessed by aliens.

Recently, I began to not just let myself feel again, but to accept my emotions as they are. This includes accepting and finding joy in the fact that I can and do love many people, including some who will not or cannot love me back. Perhaps in time, they will learn to love as I am striving to do, but, if not, I am still blessed for loving them.

In many ways, my life has been “The Road Less Traveled” and it continues to be. I am becoming someone I can love and admire and therein lies a very great lesson and blessing. Like Robert Frost attests in his poem, “I took the road less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.”