The Forest

Facebook says: What's on your mind?
I never know how to answer that question
in definitive terms, right then and there.
Truth be known, I haven't given much thought
to it until you mentioned it.
To find out what's on my mind, I write.
It's a little journal entry that starts out
shallow and vague and somewhat scattered
and finally burrows its way into the things
I'm really feeling--concerned about or happy
about or things I long for or things that
happened that I need to get rid of the charge
for.

The forest confronts us.
It you see a path ahead, its not yours
you can be sure of that--that would be too easy
and besides it would be somebody else's path,
not yours.
You'll know which way to proceed when you confront
a pathless forest. Now it's time to roll up your
sleeves and start your journey through a forest
without a path.
Which way to go?
The eternal question.
It's your forest--you get to go whichever way you want.
How fun.
You can struggle through the thickest, densest, bushiest
parts if that's your thing--might make you very strong
in the process.
The point is, you get to decide which way pleases you
the most or maybe where you want to end up.
It could be a very lost feeling for a while
but again, your path is your path. No one but you
has ever been this way before.
Actually, I never quite looked at it like that before.
I thought I had do what someone else has done--
travel their path--to get what they had got.
I'm glad I'm free to consult myself for what I
want out of life--in the end I'm responsible anyway
whether I copy their model or make my own original.
I think I'd rather take the slings and arrows of
making my own original.


Copyright © 2012 by Gary Frates