The Road Not Taken

 

The Road Not Taken

by Robert Frost

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.

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Mountain Interval.  1920.

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The author Paulo Coelho had this poem by Robert Frost on his blog the other day (but with a different picture). On Facebook, Coelho added the comment: “ALWAYS chose the road less taken”.

Reading the poem, though, I felt less sure whether that was also Frost’s decided opinion? I searched a bit more, and then found this note:

Robert Frost on his own poetry:
"One stanza of 'The Road Not Taken' was written while I was sitting on a sofa in the middle of England: Was found three or four years later, and I couldn't bear not to finish it. I wasn't thinking about myself there, but about a friend who had gone off to war, a person who, whichever road he went, would be sorry he didn't go the other. He was hard on himself that way."
Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, 23 Aug. 1953

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I too know people who are hard on themselves that way. Occasionally perhaps I also tend to be a bit hard on myself that way. But most of the time I try to tell myself that not all choices are as clear as being a choice between “right” vs “wrong”. Sometimes… we just have to choose a road and see where it takes us.

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Look closely at the pictures at the top. Which one do you like better? Actually, one is the mirror image of the other, before I framed them (in Paint Shop). You’d have to know the spot where the photo was taken, I think, to tell which is the “right” one.   

 

 

The Song In Your Heart

"A friend is someone who knows the song in your heart and can sing it back to you when you have forgotten the words."
~ Unknown ~

Does the picture above seem familiar to you? I used the “raw image” in another post just recently. We’ve been having rainy days lately and I have not been out taking a lot of new photos; instead I’m playing with my archives and photo editing software. (Picasa + Corel Paint Shop Pro X in this case)

The friendship quote reminded me of the line “take a sad song and make it better”… Google and YouTube were in friendly mood and sang it back to me:  

Fears and Relief

Ever since the biopsy (of my thyroid gland) three weeks ago I've been jumpy every time the phone rang, and especially with the display showing the word Unknown.

I have to confess though that it's already been a bit like that for me for about 1-1½ years. Before that, I can remember a time when the phone display showing Unknown usually meant a welcome call from a friend with an unlisted phone number... Then my friend got back to work full time; and weekdays in the daytime it was no longer likely to be her calling. Instead I suddenly had constant reason to fear Unknown to mean some emergency or problem connected to my parents (because that did happen on a number of occasions).

Last week kept me on the edge again with some daytime Unknown calls that I half expected to be the hospital abut my test results, but that turned out to be just wrong number calls, or someone hanging up before I had a chance to answer (leaving me wondering...) 

Yesterday, as late in the day as at 6.15 PM I did not expect the Unknown caller to be the doctor - but it was. Luckily, it was good news. She said the result of the biopsy gave no indication of malignancy, and considering that I have not really had any problems from the enlarged gland so far, she saw no reason for surgery or further examination right now. The downside is that she also said things like "contact us if you get difficulties swallowing or breathing"... Yeah. Also having pollen allergy and asthma, and entering the worst pollen season, just what I needed to keep hypochondria going...

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Hypochondria(sis):  a disorder characterized by a preoccupation with body functions and the interpretation of normal body sensations (such as sweating) or minor abnormalities (such as minor aches and pains) as portending problems of major medical moment. - Hypochondrium is Greek for the anatomic area of the upper abdomen just below the ribs. Hypochondriasis was thought by the ancients to be due to disturbed function of the spleen and other organs in the upper abdomen.

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... Seriously, though, of course I'm relieved! Four years ago I spent the heat of summer in a hospital ward because of needing other kind of surgery (no hypochondria); and I assure you I've not been longing to repeat the experience.

I should have my blood tested again in about six months; which I should be able to combine with other yearly medical check-ups. So I hope I'll be able to put it aside until then (not getting too obsessed with checking my image in the mirror).

The vampire bite marks (=bruises from the biopsy) by the way had just about faded away for Friday last week, when I was going to a friend's 50th birthday party. Another relief, because that meant I could dress like a normal person without evoking curious looks or questions. (The goitre is not all that obvious in itself, unless you already know about it. I think...)

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Thinking of phone calls made me remember the photo of the old phone booth. It was one of the first I successfully experimented with in Paint Shop Pro last year, playing around with some artistic effects. I thought I had lost the edited copy in the computer crash back in the autumn; but remembered I had published it before, on the Soaring Through the World blog. So I was able to retrieve it from my Picasa album on the web. It's an old type phone booth placed outside a museum. I think it is still in use, but not sure. Phone booths of all kinds are getting rather rare these days, with almost everyone always carrying their own mobile (cell phone).

Making Progress!

Yes!! I finally figured out how to put coloured text onto a picture in PaintShop, and also how to replace the standard page header of the blog with an image of my own! I'm so proud of myself... :)