I traveled down a straight and narrow road, and
at the end of this road, there's a fork...
Much like a particular Robert Frost poem, one is well worn with footprints and another is far less traveled. However, this adjoining, less trodden road, which leads in the opposite direction of the other side of the fork (of course), is full of hills and uneven gravel. Compared to the other road (which is smooth with freshly laid pavement), it is the undesirable route. There aren't any signs to give direction, anyway. How would I know where I was going? An old, rock road that leads to nowhere... that's definitely reassuring. No thank you. I look to my left, and the newly paved side of the fork has several new signs: only 5 MILES TO FUN and only 10 MILES TO A LIFE IN PARADISE. Oooh, I can smell that ocean air already!
As I feel my feet begin to float towards the left road, I hear familiar voices and friendly footsteps up ahead. "Are you coming?" they sing. "Hurry up!" they beckon. I see the seashell-cluttered sand bordering the road. I imagine the rising and falling of the waves and the warmth of the sun. "Yes, I'm..." I begin to sing back, but my voice trails off. It's suddenly as if the heat of my imagined sun has lit my heart on fire. I can hear it pumping and pumping, expelling its last bits of energy to smother the flames. My head aches (no doubt my brain cells are bursting under the pressure). The smooth road now appears like charred fuzz in the distance, and the elegant voices are now a violent ringing in my ears. My whole body writhes in protestation.... Stop.
It seems like eternity passes by before my eyes rediscover their purpose and start to blink into focus. The ringing in my ears fades into a feathery whisper. I pull myself out of my collapsed state and regain my footing on the solid ground. My composure strengthens, but the sight in front of me puzzles me. Where was the path I'd seen before, the one that would lead me to a tropical paradise? (The fun path.) This view in front of me surely wasn't that:
The sand with the seashells? All I saw now was dirt littered with beer bottles and cigarette butts.
The smooth, repaved road? Cracked and broken, now looking much like a graffitied wall that had fallen in defeat.
And the voices of my friends? Imposters. Just a bunch of people looking to pull me onto their bandwagon. They weren't anyone I recognized...
I stared in disgust for a moment before I turned my back on the left fork mirage. I retraced my steps to the sharp point where the V-shaped fork commenced and pondered returning to where I'd come from. Before the idea could really sink in, however, I happened to glance to the right side of the fork: a road less traveled, and much rockier, and with no destination. Suddenly it seemed a whole lot better than the choice I was about to make. I couldn't explain it really. It just felt, well, right. I clenched my fists and bounded towards the right side of the fork.
I stepped onto the road seconds later and felt the rough gravel crumble into velvet sand beneath me. As I walked a few steps further there was a t-shaped post with two arrows attached to its base: 5 MILES TO A NEW BEGINNING and ____ (blank) MILES TO A BETTER LIFE. I proceeded down the road without hesitation. The walking seemed effortless, as if walking on a cloud, and I could feel the rightness of the road around me. I was walking on the road less traveled, and I knew it was leading me to my proper destination.
I could hear wind chimes around me, and before I could even look, I could feel their grace around me--an unyielding rope of friendly, loving, and supportive faces carefully leading me there.
...and we continue on the right road to indescribable bliss...
***
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