A quote you try to live by.

I don't really have a quote... it's more like a whole poem. It's by Robert Frost.

The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveller, 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 marked 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 travelled by,
And that has made all the difference.

I've loved this poem for a long time, ever since my first pilgrimage with the Iona Community. It's read aloud at the one crossroads on the island, which is of course quite fitting.

I think I like this so much because I don't think I have taken the road more often travelled, instead I've more or less gone off and created my own little path. I'm happy to have done that. I try to keep it in mind when making big decisions in my life. I don't always choose the road less travelled, and when I do I certainly don't choose it for that reason. I just try to remind myself that I don't have to choose the most common answer, I don't have to follow a crowd and that I can be different and that's ok.

And I honestly do think it has made all the difference.