What does one do at a crossroads? You know this intersection. It's the one where the next step you take makes all the difference. When you are standing there, pondering, you already know it is the next step that will become the first step in your quest for new breath, new journey, new life.
But when you are standing, ragged, weary, perhaps cold, you hesitate. Sometimes you look back and say, maybe I should stay. Sometimes you sit a moment and tell yourself there are still good days right where you are. Sometimes you cry and look off into the distance because you are afraid. Sometimes you close your eyes in pain. Sometimes you want to simply sleep here at this crossing and wake at dusk as if the memory of why you are here is only something from a story you have read or a dream you have lost.
But there comes a time when you know again where you are. Standing. Still. Silent. And inside you know the day has broken, and there are only so many hours in a day, so many days in a life. Your life. One life. The temperate air inside of you expands, and you begin to accept that you are here. The mere fact that you are here attests that you must do something because you can not simply be in this place for the rest of your life.
This place is not a place of growth, this vague borderland. This place restricts you and in this place you find your expressions have become controlled. Confined. Locked. Null. Limited. You do not live well in this place. You do not think well in this place. You do not create here, neither are you nourished or sustained. Prolonged, you have dallied far past the hour of travel. But the guyline is loosened, and you are no longer braced here in spirit or heart.
It's time to pack light, to consider component and convenience, to absorb what you have become and take shape and form without unneccessary excess. Your soul remains marked by desire, transitive and hopeful. What else needs be said? It is time to go.
Time to put matter in motion. Time to begin anew with hope of a steady road, a sure foot, and a clear mind. It is time to be resolute, to roam unexpected, to abandon and steal away because you dare. To live if for just a moment more, because you are convicted that the mechanic of a perfunctory life is no life. No sight. A wasteland. Your hope in tandem with natural instinct is now the best choice, the only choice, your choice, at the crossing.
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.
third stanza The Road Not Taken
Robert Frost (1874–1963)
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Comments
Today I had a discussion with my nephew on his depression and stifled creativity sacrificed for a complacent existence. How I wish I could have read this post to him. --rated--
I can see that crossroad ahead of me. I may even be too eager to get there right now, but when I get there, I will savour that moment on the threshold and then break on through to the other side...
You made me wish I wrote this backwards on a piece of paper, then held it up to the mirror, and read it to myself. I need a good talkin' to, and I am just the man to do it.
But thanks, now I have the script.
Rrrrrrrrrated!!!!!!!!!
Kisses,
Marcela
I feel like I haven't been here for a while.
I love the ass on that girl in the picture.
Just sayin'.
I wish for you what you want and so richly deserve.
Your writing touches.
This is a powerful piece of writing and the depth of your pain is clear. Each journey begins with a single step, has yours begun?
I wish you well and hope you rediscover what you are missing.
rated for no longer being stuck
Word - Exactly that!
Duaneart- Risa's comment (below) may be of interest to you. (Not that I am asking that you read it.) You will talk to yourself when you must.
Theo - You are such a sweet person. I wish you peace.
Risa - Your comment deserves to be a post in and of itself. Remarkable insight.
Life- For me it such reflection that always takes me toward change. Be happy now.
Lady - Oh yes. Mine has begun. Thank you for stopping by.
The romanticism of the crossroads always left me cold. I found your one word tag to be affirming in it's billiant truth.
Beautiful. xox
Good luck to you on yours. Great post. Inspiring. It makes me wonder where you're going.
sooooooo rated
This really resonated with me… it immediately conjured the parallel for me moving out west on my own with whatever fit in my car… marrying a man I met out there…. having children with him years later… Your insights were spot on and I am glad that I followed my “hope in tandem with natural instinct” along with prayers and found my direction. I want to save this to read again when I find myself at another crossroads in life.
I loved this post and hope that you will share the back story with us – yeah, I’m nosy.
Thanks for stopping by. IT sometimes is all about the road, isn't it? Somehow I think that Pink Cadillac traverses you about at will. Cheers!
Rated and dugg.
I guess I'm impulsive. I've never had a problem making a decision. If I'm wrong, I pay the piper. If I'm right, the piper pays me. But after all is said and done and I'm lying in bed dying, the minutes lost making decisions won't haunt me, for life is an adventure to take, regardless of the direction you choose and timidity has no place in the short span of human life.
Scupper. Just point the car an go.
Glad you stopped by. I think I've lived a life of impulsivity. Of recent, I'm not sure where the ponderin' developed. Come back again!