Lately I have felt like I’m approaching a critical crossroads of my life.  There are three options: ignore it and continue aimlessly down my current path, destination unknown, few interesting landmarks along the way; take the fork to the right with clear roadsigns that point to financial success, job security, and a defined life and career path; or take the road to the left, which is unfamiliar, unmarked, and uncertain, filled with daunting barriers and almost certain heartache, but one that promises adventure and excitement and richness of life with which the other two options cannot compete.

The most cliche - and usually misinterpreted to my constant annoyance - Robert Frost quote keeps playing through my mind: “Two roads diverged in the woods, and I - I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.”

People generally translate this passage in a way that romanticizes the “road less traveled” and celebrates individualism, but in context of the entire poem, Frost is lamenting that he has to make a choice; he is torn betwen two directions, and by choosing one he understands that he is rejecting the other, equally appealing, path.  No matter which road he chooses, it will alter the direction of his life.  I am there.

One direction is most responsible, one offers the best payout, and one is where my heart wants to go.

Over the past month I have adopted a passage from Thoreau’s Walden as my new life theme:

“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartanlike as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion.”

If the decision could be made today, I know which one I would choose.  I hope this clarity and determination is still here in the morning.