Soul Road
“Two roads diverged in a wood and I - I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.”
Take the road less traveled by? In fact, I like to find the side alley, the forgotten trails, slip through Platform 9 & 3/4, or sometimes just blaze my own trail.
Meandering last winter, I stumbled on this sandy path in what we in the Southeastern United States call the Low Country. South Carolina marsh, to be exact. Arching trees and a bend in the road always lure me in, and this course looked like it could lead me into eternity, or at least out of my pandemic stupor.
Since this trail had not been paved, this path had either been forgotten, known few folks, but surely holds a lot of history. And now it attracts folks who like me, love, to saunter and get lost. I am definitely a flaneuse.
The stories these trees could tell. What history lies in the sand? What souls or ghosts are traveling this way with their own memories? What might I discover and what might it teach me?
This road has soul.
Not only is this how I travel, but how I travel through life. Emerging from the pandemic beckons this philosophy in spades. Which way now? The road behind has disappeared. The only way is forward - on a new road.
My new road looks softer, gentler, slower. Indeed, perhaps a sandy path like this one. More like an “Ease On Down the Road” kind of a passage that the Wiz would recommend. And it has wisdom, depth, treasures to discover. Rich melodies dripping off tree branches. I’ll take this one, even if I do have to blaze it myself.
Give me a road with soul.
“A bend in the road is not the end of the road… unless you fail to make the turn.”