“The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.”
- Robert Frost’s last lines of “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”
Choosing Your Passageway
I’ve been thinking about how we choose our paths and how we often can’t see over the bend, like this picture, to even know what is next. How many times the woods are dark and deep.
It has been said by people closest to me that my tombstone will say, “I have so much to do.” Well…I do! There is so much to do, and I have promises to keep! To be honest, many of those promises are simply to myself. Still, promises none the less.
I have many more miles to go before I sleep.
I hope I get the chance.
Solo Decisions but Not Solo Consequences
Something else is, often a passageway looks lonely, or at least like you’ll walk it alone, as such you may believe the consequences will also be faced by you alone. This is not so much as you think.
For example, I started the notes for this blog while sitting next to my mother in the ICU unit of the cancer center. She has had 12 hours of surgery and now lays here beside me with a trachea from her neck pushing each breath, a tube in her nose for nourishment, and so much blood and stitches…although I have spent many hours next to her over the last few weeks. I do not doubt that she feels very alone. And she is…
and so am I.
The first-time cancer hit her, I was pretty angry. She’s not that same person this time, and all I have to tell you now is that dying isn’t as easy as it looks. Everyone, it seems, “picks their poison” and that choice does affect those you love, whether you like it (or meant it) or not.
I don’t know how my mother will rebound, like she has many times before. She has a stubborn will to live and I accept that my job in this passageway is to help her.
Guiding Hands
Another thing about not being alone in the chosen passageway is what I’ve witnessed over the past four weeks of nurses and hospital staff. So many professionals doing such compassionate work. Thorough, unpleasant, and gritty work. Here they are, in the shadows even, reaching out their hands to guide fellow humans through the passageway while they are their most vulnerable. Amazing really.
What Do You See in this Photo?
SO, as is often the custom on our Finish the Sentence Friday Prompts, even when I am lucky enough to co-host (like this week) The words that come are rarely the words I intended when I first began. Ah well, sometimes life and words lead. I feel like there’s so much more to say about this image, maybe we’ll come back to it some other day.
The photo was generously shared by Tim Wright, my talented brother. You can check out more of his photography here: https://www.redbubble.com/people/bobst1080
There will be a picture prompt for the last Friday of the month all year! A few will also include fun giveaways. I hope to see you around.
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Isn’t it so true that each passageway we take seems alone or not, and MORE that we never end up writing what we think we’ll write? I had something else in mind for mine but then it happened. Thank you for sharing your brother’s amazing photography and the idea of a passageway, and for hosting with me. I’m so sorry about your mom. So so sorry. Cancer and everything related to dying just f***ing sucks. Hugs to you, my friend.
First of all, I am so sorry that your mother is fighting another bout with her opponent, cancer. When a parent suffers through something like this, so do her children. Virtual hugs just hardly seem enough, but it is sincerely given, and wish it could be more.
Your brother’s photo is perfect for this prompt!
I agree that even when we may feel we are along going through these passages in our lives, we are really never alone. People come into our lives just at the right time with just the right words, or just to listen, and in a myriad of other ways to lift our spirits. I have felt this in my own life and have seen it in action in the lives of others.
Sending you thoughts of peace and strength and acceptance for the path beneath and ahead.
~ Us Longs