"People take different roads seeking fulfilment and happiness. Just because they're not on your road doesn't mean they've gotten lost." — Dalai Lama
"One's life has value so long as one attributes value to the life of others, by means of love, friendship, indignation, compassion." — Simone de Beauvoir
I've taken a fortnight away from my (creative) keyboard. We're into the second week, so here's another poem that resonated this week:
The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost
Two roads diverged in a 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 roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.My week in books
Falling Uphill by Scott Stoll. Scott spends 5-years cycling around the world. What a journey. It's not told chronologically but in response to questions. The chapters are each titled: "Do you miss your family?" "Why?" "Were you hit by a car?" etc. — and it's a brilliant structure. Scott reviewed the book on Goodreads:
"Do I get to review my own book? Because I literally risked my life to write it and gave it everything I had — it took 12 years. (I only gave myself 4 stars because there is always room to improve.) I feel I owe everyone a debt of gratitude for helping make my journey of self-discovery and my book possible. And, thanks to all my future readers that will help bring Falling Uphill to life. I hope you find my adventures and misadventures entertaining, inspiring and somewhat enlightening."
Turning The Wheel by Simon Loughlin. Simon cycles from Ireland to India, and by doing so, he learns about the world and himself. Interestingly, he founded Chainreaction Cycles, a massive online cycling shop. On his return, he became an ashtanga instructor and retreat owner in a secluded Spanish mountain. It's a motivating and optimistic book. And hilarious.
"In pursuing our dreams all the barriers that we think block our passage fall in quick succession. When we realise that we can, it makes us consider very carefully what it is we really want. We realise we are continually creating the world around us and that cultivation of that which inspires us is essential to our life-force."
Live well,
Hector