Someone recently read me a quote to the effect that ‘if you think you are on a path, or are looking for a path then you are hopelessly lost.’ I’m not sure I agree with that – it bears much further thought as I am rather a pathfinding person, or think I am…
Still, I’ve seen friends, loved ones and perfect strangers (come to think of it, probably even more imperfect strangers) head down paths that were obviously wastes of time or self destructive…
I do love ice cream, though.
Titirangi Storyteller 
I agree with you on not be so sure to believe in that quite either..because I do believe in our lifetime we come to crossroads in our life where we are given choices in which direction we can go in. And depending on which choice you make determines what your going to experience in the road ahead. So..I have to say I believe in paths. I think that those that ignore those paths and the especially the crossroad signs are the one’s that are hopelessly lost.
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Interesting take on it. This post provoked a bit more conversation than I expected. (I mirror on a few other sites). Funny that most of the conversations boiled down to what was the actual definition of a path? Is it something pre-set, like a map or plan, or something we are all cutting and marking as we go anyway? I lean to the first… I did tend to think that some of the people that preferred the latter seem to be of the more drifting type, ones I would say are not on a path at all… Hmmm… And I agree about those crossroads.
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How do you know when a wrong looking path turns into one that’s awesome? Am I a Pollyanna?…they all have value. Just depends on whether or not I can see it.
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Yes, you are a Pollyanna – which is at least partly by intent (awareness of one’s Pollyanna-ness affects the flavour, but not the integrity of the Pollyanna-ness – it still spreads beautifully on a slightly chilled banana).
As for the paths, I would agree that in retrospect one can see where the wrong-looking paths that took us down some dark and scary alleyways the people that love us would rather we avoided, may very well, in the long run, lead us out into other lighter, more illuminating places… and most certainly, I would encourage anyone in a dark place to seek a path out. But I could never imagine myself suggesting that anyone venture down a dark and lonely path just for the sake of it… even if I knew for sure they would come out safely on the other side…
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Someone I knew once (actually quite a few times more than once) said “I took the path less traveled . . .” Well, there was a reason that path was less traveled.
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The road less travelled – Robert Frost… Was Mom ever on a path? Did she ever believe in anything or care deeply enough about anyone or anything to follow it all the way through? I don’t know – until she started with the dollhouses in her fifties, I’m inclined to say no… but it is so hard to see one’s parents as who they were… I think it was probably a bit less that Mom chose the road less travelled than she stayed off the main roads where there was lots of traffic, cos there she always got into trouble…
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My life frequently reminds me of that sign. Other times it is a highway that turned into a 1 lane blacktop and then into a dirt road. Then I have to U turn. Sheesh.
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I think by the time we reach a certain age, a life like that sign is probably a life well lived – chances taken, opportunities seized, gambles won and lost, and a bit tattered and worn from the effort… We could compare notes…
How’s the book coming???
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Do you remember on M*A*S*H, the road sign that pointed to everyone’s hometowns? That sign always touched something in me, the old softie side. Roadmarkers, roads home, paths, traveled or not . . .
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