The Road Never Taken
One was a beaten path and was evident,
The other never traveled, uncharted, unexplored, un-evident,
Two roads forked before my eyes,
Emerging from a distance quiet like a block of ice,
Certain I had to make a choice,
I heard that still small voice,
Urging me to shun the beaten path,
To shun the caterwauling voices of distracting wrath,
So I heeded and took the path never traveled,
I wish I could say with every step I wondrously marveled,
The opportunities came in the guise of work,
But that did not take away my zeal to continue the walk,
As I forged the road never before traveled a lot was
revealed,
Nothing could stop me even though I was sometimes frightened
by the uncertain hand destiny dealed,
There was lots of gold and treasures and precious stones waiting
to be discovered,
Focused on my path every once in a while I pondered what
loot had happened on the beaten path more traveled,
What a difference did it make and what a mountain of
opportunity did it bring,
To take that never ever taken path.
Whether it was Thomas Edison (1847 – 1931) most known for
the electric light bulb who developed and innovated a wide range of products; the
Wright Brothers who successfully dreamed, conceived, designed, toiled, refined,
built and flew the first powered aircraft making man’s first steps towards
powered flight; Charles Babbage (1791 – 1871) who created the first mechanical
computer believed to be the initial prototype of all computers; James Watt (1736 – 1819) who invented the
steam engine, an invention critical to driving the industrial revolution;
Alexander Bell (1847 – 1922) credited with the invention of the first practical
telephone; Galileo (1564-1642) who developed a powerful telescope used in the confirmation
of ground breaking theories about our world or Tim Berners Lee credited for
developing the http:// protocol for the internet which allows us to interact
through this medium; they all encountered and knew something about the uncertainty
of trail blazing. They knew the scares of walking a path no other person had
walked before, they knew what it means to have no previous experience or
precedence to bank on, but they also knew the overwhelming and almost
compulsive and instinctive urge to stay at it no matter the scares, no matter
the discouraging voices, no matter the obstacles, no matter the setbacks, no
matter the beckoning excuses giving them a millions reasons to stop, no matter
the weariness of travelling that sometimes tiresome road; they know the
unparalleled feeling of being drawn by a giant magnet of unrelenting drive and
inviting curiosity towards that bigger than self dream and revolutionary, life
changing discovery.
It is a path which can be lonesome and full of rejections, one
which also helps reveal the nature of your true character and the true nature those
around you. When nothing else matters more, and you are more than
enthusiastically happy to give those countless extras that allow you inch
closer to the dreams you see at night and courageously work towards in the
daytime, then you might well be on your way to earning a place amongst those
hall of famers who go to their graves totally wasted in a cause and course worthy
of any lifetime’s best efforts and service. Have you given yourself permission
to take the never taken path? Have you given yourself freedom to reach out to
those things and people and places no one reaches out to or in a manner no one
has dared out with before? Chances are many people have been on the beaten path
and explored it and mined all the treasures, baring the barren land of once
treasured soil but, but the opportunities in the never taken path are boundless
– embrace it!
© October 2014
afesehngwaHilary
