The Choices We Make

"With every experience, you alone are painting your own canvas, thought by thought, choice by choice."                                    - Oprah Winfrey

This morning as I was having my cup of coffee and reading our local newspaper, I chanced upon a reference to Robert Frost's, "The Road Not Taken."  Poetry is not my favorite genre, but something clicked. I found the poem, sat down, and read it.  Three lines jumped out:

"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I---I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference."

How many times in our lives have choices faced us that, decided differently, would have completely altered our future?  I can think of many, but the most prominent was my decision to retire when I was 56. Our company offered a severance package and asked for volunteers.  It was sooner than I'd planned to go, my finances weren't fully supportive of retiring and my wife was uncertain that it was wise, but something made me say, "Yes."

This newly found freedom allowed me time to do other things, one of which was to get a much needed physical, something I wouldn't have done had I still been working.  I felt healthy, saw no need for a physical, but chose to do it anyway.  The doc found a tumor in my intestine, surgery was performed to remove it, and I got the bad news: Stage 3 colon cancer. Five months of chemotherapy followed. Today I am in remission.

Was it luck, or something more mysterious that led me to make the choices I did?  I can't answer that, but I can tell you this.  If I hadn't taken the path I took, you would not be reading these words.  I would be dead.  A sobering thought, my friends---at least for me.