“Two roads
diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I
could not travel both…
I took the
one less traveled by,
And that has
made all the difference.”
The poem is
all about the choices we make as we travel the road of life and the choices
that shape us. Garth Brooks has a
country song about unanswered prayers and the paths that were seemingly blocked
on our journey which turned out to be to our benefit.
The mention
of a yellow wood implies that many of our significant life decisions will have
a consequential impact on our future, but faith and intuition must be our guide,
as foreseeing the future is akin to peering through a dense forest darkly. Knowing the woods have turned a yellow color
implies that our sojourner has entered into a season of early autumn,
symbolizing a season of maturity in life.
I’ve also
been influenced by Joseph Campbell’s introspection in The Power of Myth where
he encourages us to “Follow Your Bliss”.
His well received interview on PBS with Bill Moyers resulted in that
suggestion becoming a catchphrase in our culture. When Moyers asked Campbell if he ever had a
sense of being helped by hidden hands, he had a ready reply; “If you do follow
your bliss, you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the
while and the life that you ought to be living is the one you are living. You begin to meet people in your field of
bliss and they open doors to you.”
Jeremiah
29:11 is one of the most quoted Bible verses; “For I know the plans I have for
you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give
you a hope and a future.” The good news
for those who aren’t interested is that we have also been given free will to do
as we please and the chips will fall as they may.
The “Reason
for the Season” we will soon be celebrating is part of that plan. Our Creator’s free gift of grace has provided
a plan for us both in this life and also the next!
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