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The Road Not Taken (with apologies to Robert Frost.)


The Road Not Taken


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

                                                                                                                Robert Frost (The Road Not Taken)

 

                This last stanza  of Robert Frost's poem doesn't quite describe my life. Oh, I suspect I've often taken the road less traveled by. I also suspect I've taken it less often than I like to imagine I have.  What really describes my life, but would not sound nearly as desirable, is that I have taken the road I didn't want to take.

                In the summer of 2001, I left the church I'd been attending for years.  I had not intended to leave but circumstances led me to feel it necessary. When I explained that I had left to some friends, they suggested the church I am currently attending and my first reaction was, "Oh, I've gone to a church of that denomination before and it's so far away. It took two visits to convince me that where I didn't want to go was where I belonged. On September 11, of course, we all died a little. Then in November, my boss informed me that County Council had eliminated my position. The last piece of the life I had known since college came tumbling down.  It didn't all happen on September 11, but in my mind that date became symbolic of my own death  to one life and rebirth to another.

                The past couple months are the most recent chapter in this story. I am following the example of Sarah, who left Ur with her husband, Abraham, and traveled to a place she did not know  because of a promise of blessings:  an end to her cursed barrenness and a new life. In June, my brother died and that changed the family dynamics. My father is not suited to spending winters in Erie anymore, so I have decided to commit a figurative suicide.  I am leaving the job I have held since 2002. I am taking a leave of absence from the church I have attended since 2001. I am going to a place that I not only don't know, but which is not a place I would choose to go. We have not packed yet, but since we'll be sojourning in a modern "tabernacle," I am leaving behind many things that I hold dear, the most troubling of which are books.

             I've decided that the name for this season is "Mission: Faithwalk." I am holding on to the promise that my "barrenness" will be ended - that I will build a new life, start a new career doing something meaningful and rewarding. This blog is a piece of that dream. I'm starting it in order to allow those who happen to care know what's going on, and in order to feel held accountable.  I expect that by next April, I will say once again

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one I wanted not,
And that has made all the difference

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