Crossroads
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
We all are familiar with Robert Frost's poem "The roads Not taken". We come across forks many times in our life and many of those decisions have made huge impact in our lives. We make many "less traveled by" decisions in life but it is not apparent but as you introspect, it is there. When we reflect back, it is much easier to see the roads and the decision we took. The key may not be which road to take .. but make a decision and take a road and not "worry" about it ... close the doors and move on (Opening Doors ). We also remember these lines very well from Frost's famous poem.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
If you think about it, the lines from both poems talk about time ahead and decisions to make in our life. Frost's poems are deep and rekindles the thoughts like no other. Recently, I ran into the following words from the book ("Night Train to Lisbon by Pascal Mercier"), it was quite thought provoking and it captures the very same essence (time ahead and decisions to make). It talks about a book written by Amador De Prado - and his golden words during the Salazar dictatorship. I will let you first read the lines and listen to the video (I probably have read/listened more than 50 times and still reverberating within me).
“What could – what should be done,
with all the time that lies ahead of us?
Open and unshaped, feather light in its freedom
and lead-heavy in its uncertainty?
Is it a wish, dreamlike and nostalgic,
to stand once again at that point in life,
and be able to take a completely different direction
to the one which has made us who we are?”
Recitation by Jeremy Irons in "Night Train to Lisbon" movie. Watch it .. it is in Netflix.
"What could – what should be done, with all the time that lies ahead of us. Open and unshaped, feather light in its freedom and lead-heavy in its uncertainty?"
This line we need to read over and over again and reflect. The answers to each of will be different. It may not resonate at all with you - that's fine. The future is unshaped with its own uncertainty and challenge. No big decision is required but each of us need to ponder and decide what we should do " time that lies ahead of us".
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Amador had other "Golden words" also. Each one is beautiful. I have listed few which I liked. Please read and reflect as each of us will find a different meaning to us.
-------------
“In youth, we live as if we were immortal, Knowledge of mortality dances around us like a brittle paper ribbon that barely touches our skin. When, in life does that change? When does the ribbon tighten, until finally it strangles us?”
-------------
“We leave something of ourselves behind, only leave a place, we stay there even though we go away. And there are things in us that we can find again only by going back there. We travel to ourselves when we go to a place though we have covered a stretch of our life, no matter how brief it may have been. But by travelling to ourselves|we must confront our own loneliness. And isn’t it so everything we do is done out of fear of loneliness? Isn’t that why we renounce all the things we will regret at the end of our lives?”
-------------
“Is it ultimately a question of self-image that determining idea one has made for oneselve of what has to be accomplished and experienced so that one can approve the life one has lived? If this is the case, the fear of death might be described as the fear of not been able to become whom one planned to be. If the certainty befalls us that it will never be achieved… this homeness, you suddenly don’t know how to live the time, that can no longer be part of a whole life”.
-------------
I hope you enjoyed this. It was a wonderful discovery for me.
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
We all are familiar with Robert Frost's poem "The roads Not taken". We come across forks many times in our life and many of those decisions have made huge impact in our lives. We make many "less traveled by" decisions in life but it is not apparent but as you introspect, it is there. When we reflect back, it is much easier to see the roads and the decision we took. The key may not be which road to take .. but make a decision and take a road and not "worry" about it ... close the doors and move on (Opening Doors ). We also remember these lines very well from Frost's famous poem.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
If you think about it, the lines from both poems talk about time ahead and decisions to make in our life. Frost's poems are deep and rekindles the thoughts like no other. Recently, I ran into the following words from the book ("Night Train to Lisbon by Pascal Mercier"), it was quite thought provoking and it captures the very same essence (time ahead and decisions to make). It talks about a book written by Amador De Prado - and his golden words during the Salazar dictatorship. I will let you first read the lines and listen to the video (I probably have read/listened more than 50 times and still reverberating within me).
“What could – what should be done,
with all the time that lies ahead of us?
Open and unshaped, feather light in its freedom
and lead-heavy in its uncertainty?
Is it a wish, dreamlike and nostalgic,
to stand once again at that point in life,
and be able to take a completely different direction
to the one which has made us who we are?”
Recitation by Jeremy Irons in "Night Train to Lisbon" movie. Watch it .. it is in Netflix.
"What could – what should be done, with all the time that lies ahead of us. Open and unshaped, feather light in its freedom and lead-heavy in its uncertainty?"
This line we need to read over and over again and reflect. The answers to each of will be different. It may not resonate at all with you - that's fine. The future is unshaped with its own uncertainty and challenge. No big decision is required but each of us need to ponder and decide what we should do " time that lies ahead of us".
-------------
Amador had other "Golden words" also. Each one is beautiful. I have listed few which I liked. Please read and reflect as each of us will find a different meaning to us.
-------------
“In youth, we live as if we were immortal, Knowledge of mortality dances around us like a brittle paper ribbon that barely touches our skin. When, in life does that change? When does the ribbon tighten, until finally it strangles us?”
-------------
“We leave something of ourselves behind, only leave a place, we stay there even though we go away. And there are things in us that we can find again only by going back there. We travel to ourselves when we go to a place though we have covered a stretch of our life, no matter how brief it may have been. But by travelling to ourselves|we must confront our own loneliness. And isn’t it so everything we do is done out of fear of loneliness? Isn’t that why we renounce all the things we will regret at the end of our lives?”
-------------
“Is it ultimately a question of self-image that determining idea one has made for oneselve of what has to be accomplished and experienced so that one can approve the life one has lived? If this is the case, the fear of death might be described as the fear of not been able to become whom one planned to be. If the certainty befalls us that it will never be achieved… this homeness, you suddenly don’t know how to live the time, that can no longer be part of a whole life”.
-------------
I hope you enjoyed this. It was a wonderful discovery for me.
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