The other day I commented on a Beautiful Post by Ginger Wilcox and as all good Bloggers do Ginger commented back. Sometimes we read what we are feeling into someones words, and sometimes we gain solace from what we read. Ginger's comment "The Road Less Traveled can be very, very lonely.." made me think. I thought about it for quite awhile as I more often than not do indeed travel down that lonely road that others choose not to.

Life is full of choices.... Some we have the power to make, and some we don't. Choosing the path we want to travel isn't always within our total control. Some decisions are made from so far within that we might not be conscious of the reasons. Some decisions are made from anger, righteousness, responsibilities, fear of rejection, or fear of the unknown.
Some people are Followers, and some are Leaders. We've all seen stories of people that follow and don't really know why, but others did it, so they do it too. We've seen stories of "Mob Mentality" where a perfectly rational individual morphs into "action" without any thought of the consequences...they react to the moment.
During my term in the Peace Corps I had a lot of evenings to fill, and one way was to read. On a cold snowy night it didn't matter to me what I read, as long as it would carry me away from the solitude of the night. Books in English were hard to come by, but one day someone gave me a book of Poetry. I had never really read poetry before, but as I said, it was in English so I read it. One of the poems was The Road Less Traveled by Robert Frost. I read it several times, thinking of different parts of my life where I had indeed taken the road less traveled.
Many years ago I worked at Sylmar Juvenile Hall, a Juvenile Detention Facility in Los Angeles County. I was full of optimism. Basically a loner, somewhat insecure in my position, and trying to do my best; I was proud of my accomplishments ......but then I got called into the Directors Office. He was very professional, but his words were like a sledge hammer into my soul..... He stated, "We have no room for Individuality in this Department." It's been more than 30 years since I heard those words, but I can hear them like it was yesterday.
No room for Individuality...Follow the Crowd even when you don't know why, or don't agree. Or stand up for what you believe in. That is a hard choice for many of us to have to make. There are consequences for both choices, but one of them has a lot of company while the other one can indeed be very, very lonely.
But wait...many people are so afraid to go into the unknown that they never get to experience all the wonderful adventures of traveling along a different path. If we plan everything, and follow just to follow we miss so many opportunities that we didn't even know existed. It's all about the journey, and what we want from life. How many people travel with us isn't as important as how we feel while going down that road...the one that others were afraid to take.....
By: Kathy McGraw - CELLing Realty