My Life Has Become a Poem

One of my favorite poems is Robert Frost's The Road Not Taken.  There is something poignant about the image of standing at a fork in the path and having to choose which direction to take.  That image is probably why The Road Not Taken has achieved the status as an iconic American poem.

These days, I feel as though my life has reached the point of mirroring the poem - or at least its first lines:

"Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood..."

Right at this moment I see myself standing in that yellow wood; listening to the breeze blow through the trees; considering the two paths that lay ahead of me and wondering what lies down each; wishing that I could see just a little bit farther down each, just around the next bend or over the next hill.

But alas, I can't.  I have not the time to travel down one a ways and then return to take the other.  I must choose one or the other.

Which is why I say that my life has become a poem.

The parallel is not exact, though, because the two roads I face do not mirror those described by Frost.  He describes a road well traveled and a road not so well traveled.  By contrast, I see two paths that appear equally worn.

On the left is a path that looks for all intents and purposes like it ends in a dead end about 100 yards down the road.  But there might be a narrow path at the cul-de-sac at the end of the path.  It's a little foggy and I think I see something, but can I risk choosing a path without knowing that it actually leads somewhere?

On the right, though, is a path that bends sharply at about 100 yards.  It clearly goes somewhere, I just have no idea where.

And so here I stand.

The frustrating part is that this time I can't fall back on the "God wants one and not the other" position.  Because of what I believe about God and the future and free will, I am forced to admit that both are viable options.  To be sure, one path may be God's "best" for me, but that does not mean that God will not bless me on the other path.  There is no "right" answer in terms of one path leading to happiness and one leading to destruction.

It would help if the two paths were a bit more like Frost's, if there were some obvious distinguishing characteristic that makes one clearly preferable over the other.  But again, there is no such mark - they both look equally worn and equally attractive.  There are pros and cons associated with each.

None of which helps make the decision easier.

"Two roads diverged in a yellow wood..."

And I have have no idea which one I'm taking.