Road Not Taken

  
In general, life brings us two choices, two different ways that we should decide and choose  one without knowing what the end even the next step will be. Our life consists of all our preferences. Choosing our life partner and our carrier or all our qualifications are the most difficult and important ones. Our character plays an important role on our choices. There is also an unknown  mystery of "chance" in our lives.

 

















Road at Chantilly by Paul Cezanne

I chose a poem for you. Here is the poem and the interpretation afterwards:

  

Road not Taken

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.

by Robert Frost

Here is the interpretation line by line but this may change from person to person:

1. Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

The narrator probably standing at a fork sees two roads which split going different ways. These two roads are in a yellow wood, it is yellow as it is autumn, the leaves on the roads and the trees are yellow, not green. This maybe means the poet is not very young.

2. And sorry I could not travel both 3.And be one traveler,

The narrator wishes he could go down both roads as one traveller but he can’t, because then he'd have to split himself in two.

4. long I stood, and looked down one as far as I could  5.To where it bent in the undergrowth;

For a long time the narrator stands at the fork and examines one of the roads as far as he can. But he can't see the end of the road because the road curves away out of his sight.

6. Then took the other,

He takes the "Second Road", not the one he examined.

7.as just as fair,

This one is just as good as the "First Road"

8. And having perhaps the better claim,  9.Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

This "Second Road" may be more deserving of the narrator walking down it as there was grass and seemed to have wanted him to walk on it.

10. Though as for that the passing there Had worn them really about the same.

Both the "First Road" and "Second Road" were equally worn down by people walking down them.Namely,grassy "Second Road" was walked on as much as the first road.

11.And both that morning equally lay  12.In leaves no step had trodden black.

Both roads were equally not stepped on and walked on as the leaves on the ground weren't crushed by people walking on them, breaking them up on that morning.

13.Oh, I kept the first for another day!

He wanted to save traveling on the "First Road" that he examined for another day in the future.He decided to take the Second Road now but couldn’t give up the first one and he wanted to give it a shot next time.

14.Yet knowing how way leads on to way, 15.I doubted if I should ever come back.

But he is not sure this will come true as when he takes the second road, that road will lead to another fork. He knows he'll encounter other future road choices so he thinks he's unlikely to ever come back to see what this first road is like.

---

16. I shall be telling this with a sigh  17. Somewhere ages and ages hence:

In the future, when he's much older, he will remember and tell about this decision he is making now with a sigh. “Sigh” may mean  satisfaction, pleasure or  regret?

18. Two roads diverged in a wood, and I- 19.I took the one less traveled by,

He will say that there were these two roads going two different ways in a wood and he took the less traveled one.

20. And that has made all the difference.

He changed his life taking the less traveled road. But we don’t know if that  was a good or bad or neither good nor bad difference.The choice of the Second Road has a great impact on his life for sure.

I guess, whatever our choice brings us, we should learn how to be satisfied with what we have in our hands. Having the opportunity of a life on this universe is a great chance, right? To be one of the 7 milliards unique people living on this planet. Each of us is unique. Instead of thinking and worrying too much, we'd better go with the flow and let's hug the life as it is.

Instructions for Life

 It was said that The Dalai Lama, spiritual leader of The Tibetan people wrote these Life Instructions in 2000 for the milennium. Is it hard for you to imagine that he had sat and typed all these on the computer especially  this one about "love" and "cooking"? :
 "Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon."
 Anyway, whatever the case is, they are so useful and contributive instructions.
 Before reading his  Instructions for Life, let's have a brief look at a piece from his biography:

His Holiness the 14th the Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso, is the head of state and spiritual leader of the Tibetan people. He was born Lhamo Dhondrub on 6 July 1935, in a small village called Taktser in northeastern Tibet. Born to a peasant family, His Holiness was recognized at the age of two, in accordance with Tibetan tradition, as the reincarnation of his predecessor the 13th Dalai Lama, and thus an incarnation Avalokitesvara, the Buddha of Compassion.

The Dalai Lama's Instructions for Life
(With Turkish Translations)

• Take into account that great love and great achievements involve great risk.
•  
• Büyük aşklar ve büyük kazanımların büyük risk taşıdığını hesaba katin.
•  
• When you lose, don't lose the lesson.
•  
•  Kaybettiğinizde, aldığınız dersi de kaybetmeyin.
•  
• Follow the three R's:
  - Respect for self.
  - Respect for others.
  - Responsibility for all of your actions.
•  
• Üç 'S'yi hep uygulayın: Saygı, kendiniz için
• Saygı, başkaları için,
• ve Sorumluluk, tüm  davranışlarınız için,
  
  
• Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.
• 
  
•  İstediğinizi alamamanızın bazen ne kadar büyük bir şans olduğunu hatırlayın.
•  
• Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.
•  
•  Kuralları iyi öğrenin ki, onları düzgün şekilde ihlal etmeyi bilesiniz.
•  
• Don't let a little dispute injure a great friendship.
•   
• Küçük bir aksaklığın, büyük bir arkadaşlığı yaralamasına izin vermeyin.
•  
• When you realize you've made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it. .
•  
•  Hata yaptığınızı anladığınız zaman, düzeltmek için derhal gerekli adımları atın.
•  
• Spend some time alone every day.
•  
• Hergün biraz yalnız zaman harcayın.
•  
• Open your arms to change, but don't let go of your values. .
•  
•  Kollarınızı değişime açın, ama değerlerinizin kaybolup gitmesine izin vermeyin.
  
  
• Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.
•  
• Sessizliğin bazen en iyi yanıt olduğunu hatırlayın.
   
  Live a good, honorable life. Then when you get older and think back, you'll be able to enjoy it a second time.
•  
•  İyi ve şerefli bir hayat yaşayın. Yaşlandığınızda ve dönüp geçmişinize baktığınızda,  ikinci kez keyif alin.
  
  
• A loving atmosphere in your home is the foundation for your life.
•  
•  Sevgi dolu bir ev, hayatinizin temelidir. Sakin,
   düzenli bir ev yaratmak için elinizden gelen herşeyi yapın.
•  
• In disagreements with loved ones, deal only with the current situation. Don't bring up the past.

•  Sevdiklerinizle anlaşmazlığa düştüğünüzde, sadece mevcut durumla ilgilenin. Geçmişi getirmeyin.

              

• Share your knowledge. It's a way to achieve immortality.
•  
• Bilginizi paylaşın. Bu ölümsüzlüğe giden yoldur.
   
  
  
• Be gentle with the earth.
•  
•  Dünyaya karşı nazik olun.
•  
• Once a year, go someplace you've never been before.
•  
• Yılda bir kez, daha önce hiç gitmediğiniz bir yere gidin.
•  
• Remember that the best relationship is one in which your love for each other exceeds your need for each other.

•  En iyi ilişkinin, birbirinize karşı duyduğunuz aşkın, birbirinize olan ihtiyacın daha ötesine geçtiği zaman olduğunu unutmayın.
•  
• Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it.
• 
  
• Basarinizi, ona ulaşmak için nelerden vazgeçtiğinizle yargılayın.
•  
• Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon.
•  
•  Aşka ve yemek pişirmeye, sonuçlarını hiç düşünmeden girişin.

• Remember that your character is your  destiny.

• Unutmayın "Karakteriniz kaderinizdir".

Determination for Your Target

Are These Answers that I am Looking for  ?

Do you know what I am looking for? Some quotes which will affect me so much so that they will direct me to a wellbalanced diet and exercise that will make me lose weight.”Magic words”:

The other day I watched “Jay Leno". His guest was Jennifer Aniston. Jay asked her if it was true that she liked pizza and ate every day. She said she did and told him her favorite flavor. And Jay wanted to know why then she was so thin but he wasn’t. She immediately asked him how much he ate. And she added she exercised a lot after she ate pizza.

Then everything depends on what you eat and  how much you eat and how much you exercise.The balance between the calories you get inside and the calories you release.

Another important quote is also from “Jay Leno program”. He offered one of his guests sort of candy and he refused saying his body was so sacred that he didn’t eat such things: “Never fill the sacred body with empty energy giving junk food.”

Yes, we should raise awareness to be successful and try to change our bad habits that will do us harm if we don’t.

Here is an example from the newspaper: A British lady who was overweight  had an accident and they couldn’t take her out of the car so they had to cut the door to take her out.She was so embarrassed that she decided to lose weight after that car crash and in a year she lost 50 kilos: from 119 kg to 69. She looks so beautiful in her “after photo”.

A few years ago, I met one of my students. Actually, he came to visit me at school. He came towards me smiling but I couldn’t recognise him because he had lost  40 kilos. Unbelievable!! He looked so unfamiliar. I asked him how he managed to do that. He advised me not to try so hard as he did because he had to torture his body eating so little and doing so much exercise.

So the most important thing is “determination”. In a way “motivation”. We hope that we have this sort of motivation that contributes to achieving our target. Do you think it is easy? Life is tough, anyway.