On taking the less-traveled road....


Seasons have a big impact on my life, and each have their own calling, their own spirit.

Winter for me means Christmas and rain, cold weather and fires in the fireplace that go all day long.

Spring is really not a true season here in southern California, so I really associate spring with Easter.

Summer is my least favorite season. Not being in school anymore or having a career that coincides with school, summer is to me the time when I try to stay as cool and comfortable as possible. I really dislike summer. 

But fall - fall is my favorite season of the year. The nights and early mornings are cool and crisp. The trees that are in our area, such as maples, or ginkgos, pear trees, poplars and birches all begin to turn from a dull green to a glorious gold or red. Even the Japanese maple in my backyard joins the explosion of color. And fall is when my photographic eye is awakened to these grand colors, and I'm compelled to taking road trips to explore, to see.

Fall is also when I become more reflective, perhaps due to this subtle change in weather, and I begin to think of things that are slow and contemplative. And it's usually fall that I think of the paths I've taken in life, sometimes taking the well-traveled paths, but occasionally taking the paths that are less-travelled. And it's then that I think of my favorite poem, Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken".

Two roads diverged in 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 road diverged in a wood, and I - 
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

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