45under45: This Way or That Way?

*** Cliché Alert! *** Cliché Alert! *** Cliché Alert! ***

The Road Not Taken

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.

I can remember being in ninth grade and having to memorize this poem. I was TERRIBLE at memorizing. (I still am.) I was so frustrated by this assignment. I can remember even going out to the woods near my house to try to help myself memorize this confounded poem. There was a fallen tree that stretched across the creek. We used it as a balance beam as kids. I sat there for ages trying to make sense of this poem...trying to come up with some sort of mental trick that I could use to memorize this stupid thing. I remember crying out of desperation that I just couldn't get it. I hated my teacher for giving us the assignment!

I struggled with letting go of the literal.

"Yellow wood" - What's that? Wood is brown.

"Be one traveler" - As in the state of being? How could I be anything other than just one person? "How way leads on to way" - I couldn't even begin to think of what that meant!

Beyond just letting go of the literal and comprehending the words, one of the hardest parts of this poem as a fourteen-year-old, was understanding how the placement of the punctuation and phrasing worked. I read the most memorable line as if the poet had a stutter. "Two roads diverged in a wood, and I - I took the one less traveled by." What's a colon doing leading up to this? Colons are for lists. Comma after wood. Why? Dash after I? Why? The whole last stanza is just one gigantic convoluted sentence! WHY!?! Stupid poem. Stupid teacher.

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I'm 47 now. I majored in English. I teach writing for a living.

And the concept of this poem is running on a constant loop in my head. It's part of my DNA.

Excursion #1

Call sign: Millie -n- Mommy

Float plan: To the right, high wrack line

(The high wrack line IS the road less traveled! Almost everyone walks along the water. Not me. The high wrack line is marked by the seaweed where the highest tide/storms deposited the greatest undiscovered treasures.)

Perfunctory romp in the surf. Just adorable!

What a lovely thing to see. I can only imagine the precious story that goes along with this heart.

What's the story on this one? Hammer, nails, board. It's been here a while.

I have this knack for finding intact light bulbs. I love the notion that these are symbols of ideas that were found on the beach.

Platform flip flop...very late 90's.

Worm wood tracks

↓↓↓THIS IS WHY I TAKE THE ROAD LESS TRAVELED↓↓↓

"Fresh" sea turtle tracks!

You can see the tracks going to the high tide line.

The turtle's belly drags a line down the center with the flipper marks on the sides.

Sea turtle nests are NOT common on Elbow Cay. I reported it and the location to the Bahamas Sea Turtle Network. 😊

After the Millie -n- Mommy early morning excursion was finished, I set out for a real expedition...Walk the shore until I reach Abaco Inn. I had my crocs, a water bottle, a handheld radio, and my phone to take photos.

Excursion #2
Call sign: Mommy
Float plan: Abaco Inn

No soil. How does it grow?

From the top of this cliff, I surveyed my kingdom.

Screenshot with cursor pointing to where I was standing.

There was ZERO path. I was literally up to my neck in white mangroves and silver buttonwood trees. I was certain that I was standing where no other human had ever stood before!

I spoke aloud to the Abaco gods:

I see that you have LITERALLY placed this hedge of protection around me. There are no snakes on this island. (I think.) Thank you for that. Please tell the spiders that I'm sorry for messing up their webs. Onward!

When I was able to get back (safely) to the sea level, I decided that I now needed to see what was under the cliff. I channeled my inner rock climber and shimmied my way over a fifteen foot high boulder and dropped myself into the soft sand of a cave.

Insert angels singing here.

Pano didn't work out as well as just a regular shot, but worth a try.

I was certain that no other human had EVER been here! The tide was almost at its low point. I would have stayed there for a long time, except due to the fact that no human had ever set foot in this cave... the mosquitoes were thirsty and I was exactly what they were craving.

Back up the giant boulder and onward to the tidal pools in the distance!

I sat in the rock-tumbler for a while and sifted through the smoothed coral looking for sea glass. (Nothing found.)

When I finally reached the Abaco Inn, I treated myself to a dip in their pool before heading back home. One of my (MANY) quirks is that I try not to take the same path back. "~~Look~~ Walk where you're going, not where you've been." So, I donned my trusty Crocs and hoofed it home on what we call the bumpy road...an unpaved cart path that runs parallel to the ocean.

Hello handsome.

💖 💖 💖 💖

White Sound

Sea grapes

Quintessentially Bahamian...just prop up dat wire on de branch. No worries.

Original Sugar Shack.

By the time I got back to the house, I still had time to take myself on a golf cart ride. So...Millie -n Mommy went for a golf cart ride to Tahiti Beach to catch the low tide sand bank.

Excursion #3
Call sign: Millie -n- Mommy
Float plan: Tahiti Beach