The Road Not Taken

We don't just select our paths in life, we actually have the power to manifest paths where none are currently visible. Moreover, for every path we manifest we also create linkages for branching paths that were not previously available in the world.

Creative Selection
"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I - I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference." This closing line of the poem The Road Not Taken by the great American poet Robert Frost is often cited by speakers, writers, and politicians seeking to inspire their audience. But, like many things in life, by focusing on a favorite phrase, we risk missing the overall message. In this case perhaps the message Frost intended was not that the less traveled road is the best (as many seem to think), but that our selection of roads (or paths) in life is in itself a creative process that forms not only our journey, but our possible destinations. In other words, it is not so much the selection of the paths before you that forms your direction, but the process of manifesting paths by your intention that makes the difference. Frost hints at this by telling us early in the poem that objectively, both paths were worn about the same, and, at that particular point in time, were actually quite equal "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."

The realization that we don't just select our paths in life, but actually have the power to manifest paths where none are currently visible, not only gives us much food for thought but also identifies a close link between metaphysics and modern quantum theory. In quantum theory the observer and the observed are both integral parts of the same system, just as our manifestation of life paths in an integral part of the available selection of paths we find before us. Put another way, for every path we manifest we also create linkages for branching paths that were not previously available in the world. Although this may seem a bit confusing at first, history is actually filled with examples of this creative law.

Endless Possibilities
On May 25th, 1961, President John F. Kennedy told the U.S. Congress "...I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him back safely to the earth. No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important for the long-range exploration of space; and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish." By setting this intention and manifesting this path President Kennedy not only changed the face of the world, but he also created a passageway to thousands of other paths that never would have existed without his selection of "the road less traveled." The massive power that can be harnessed by simply manifesting a path "knowing how way leads on to way" is exemplified by this historic choice.

President Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963, but on July 20, 1969, almost six years later, the first representative of planet Earth set foot on the moon, accomplishing what many at the time said was impossible...all because one man focused his intention and made manifest a path that led to the manifestation of another path, and so forth. Today, tens of thousands of paths exist that have touched the lives of almost every person on the planet, all rooted in the intentions of one man in 1961.

You Are the Creator
The lessons here are many, but perhaps the greatest is to be mindful of the actions you take...and even more mindful of the actions you don't take. The paths you manifest in life don't just effect your choices and directions, they effect the collective consciousness...the entire world, seen and unseen. If John Kennedy had not set the intention to go to the moon in 1961, there would have been no moon landing on a hot summer day in 1969. Without the moon landing, a nine year old boy in Portland, Oregon would not have gone outside, looked up, and realized that we create our paths in life and we can do anything we desire. Without that inspiration, the words you just read would have never been written.

We are all creators and we are all connected. Know that when you make a path manifest you do so not just for yourself, but for all humankind. And, ages and ages hence, your path...the connection that you contributed to the web of life, may well make all the difference.