One of my favorite introductory workshop activities is to ask people to share their “road not taken,” that is, to talk about any one of the many choices they have faced, and not taken, on their path to the present. The point of the activity is to warm people up, get them in a reflective mood and build rapport on a low-risk basis.
I had planned to write this week’s article about the choices we make that construct our lives. As part of my preparation, I looked up Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken” – the inspiration for the activity itself.
Admittedly, I haven’t read the poem in a long time. The poem itself was so amazing I decided to let Mr. Frost be this week’s messenger. As you read the poem, feel free to reflect on the choices you have taken, and the choices yet to come.
The Road Not Taken
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
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.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I —
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.