Wednesday 29 September 2010

Which paths did you take?

This month's theme for our Writers' Group is to write about the good things which have happened in your life, rather than the bad things. I can't say it is a topic which appeals to me as a writer, but it did set me thinking and I thought I would share my thoughts with you today.

I suppose from the moment we are born our lives take pathways - straight paths, winding paths, T junctions, cross roads - and even, I suppose, paths which we have to make for ourselves through uncharted territory. And which path we take affects the rest of our lives.

Some people have such misfortune throughout their life, others have what they often choose to call 'Good Luck'. I expect that for the majority of us life falls somewhere in the middle - some good things, some things not so good. But, as they say, the human spirit is indomitable and most of us cope with whatever is thrown at us. But isn't it interesting how one split second decision can influence the rest of our lives? I thought you might like to share a few of your pathway selections with us. So here are a few of mine to get you in the mood and to start you off:-

When I was a teacher in an inner city school in the Midlands I never thought that I would - twenty five years later - be the wife of a farmer in the Yorkshire Dales. What paths led me there?

Firstly deciding to move out into the country on taking early retirement. Secondly the choice of house to buy. We looked at three or four possibilities, all in the Dales but far apart. I wonder what made us choose the one in the village where the farmer lived. I often pass a house we looked at in a village about ten miles west of here and I always think - if we had chosen that house I would never have met the farmer and my life would have been so very different.

Then there is our recent wonderful break in the Netherlands. This would never have come about if we had not looked through a holiday brochure and decided to go on the Hurtigruten up the coast of Norway. And similarly, if our friends in the Netherlands had not chosen to go on the same boat at the same time, then we would never have met and formed such a friendship.

It seems to me that our whole lives are made up of these tiny - but most important - events - these pathways we choose to take and where they lead to. So - dear readers - you have had a few days of looking at my photographs; now put on your thinking caps and tell us about a path you have chosen to take and its outcome. It should all make such interesting reading.

15 comments:

Unknown said...

At nineteen I left home to begin a new job in London, which then took me overseas and introduced me to people and places I never would have seen and from which every other good thing has followed. Impossible to know what the alternative might have been!

Heather said...

Most of my life has been governed by the fact that I wanted to have a family - a reaction to being an only child perhaps. I thought three children would be a nice number, but was blessed with five. When the youngest was settled at school I enrolled for a part-time City and Guilds Embroidery course at a local college and my life was changed. I learned to do things I thought I could never do and am still learning. It is one of the few things I set out to do which has actually worked - apart from having my family. So many times my plans have come to nothing and I learned early on to just take what comes and deal with it.

George said...

Robert Frost best describes my path: "Two roads diverged in a wood, and I, I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference."

The less-traveled road for me was the road of liberating myself from the conditioning and conformity of the American South. In short, it was the road to an independent life — a life based upon personal sovereignty, rather than cultural enslavement.

Gerry Snape said...

oh yellow road...what a trek you have given me and all because I took Frostie's advice.

Everyday Goddess said...

Sometimes it does just seem like chance, but I wonder if that's what it is.

You have had quite a beautiful journey I'd say!

freerangegirl said...

After being sent on a teaching work experiene when I was fifteen I vowed Id never be a teacher and left home to move to London at the first opportunity, many moons later after a career in advertising and then working in inner city schools in London im now a Head Teacher back in my hometown - if only my careers teacher could see me now!

Hildred said...

It is Easter Sunday, 1943. My dear friend and I pack up a frying pan, some pork chops, some niblets and some potatoes for frying and take off across the High Level Bridge in Edmonton for a hike by the river. A few miles away Charles left the books he was studying for ITS exams (Airforce) and wandered down to the river.... He was looking downstream when we passed, laden with our camp fire paraphanelia. Slow down, I said to my dear friend, perhaps he will catch up. She did, he did and thereby hangs the tale of the rest of my life.....instant chemistry!

Cloudia said...

Very well said!





Aloha from Honolulu
(a story of it's own :)

Comfort Spiral

ChrisJ said...

In our world rarely are the good things in life considered momentous or sensational enough to write about.

Peter Goulding said...

I turned down the chance of going to Durham University to read English.
Its just been one big downhill slope since then!

Dave King said...

You are so right. There are these obvious path-taking decisions that come along every now and then, but I often wonder how many of the smaller, unnoticed choices contribute. You can see why folk begin to believe in fate.

Pondside said...

The decision to break the rules of the Rec Centre where I was an 18 year old lifeguard, and allow a military cadet to have a swim after hours - I was the lifeguard and The Great Dane was the cadet and 40 years later I've never regretted the seemingly meaningless decision.

Ash said...

Oh such tortuous pathways! Never ever would I have chosen voluntarily the path my feet have been set upon this last year, yet in fighting for myself, my self esteem and my sanity I find the road curving towards the direction I wanted to head even before my husband walked out. I fought so hard against the fact of my choices being taken away from me, I never asked for such things never chose it but there it was - I have to choose now where my feet might tread. I struggle for compassion and forgiveness, I dream of love, I have faith in my children - to learn of trust again? Emotional pathways all. Maybe someday I can let you know of how I have travelled this road, I hope it leads towards rainbows!!

The Weaver of Grass said...

Interesting to read of everyone's important pathways. Some good and some not so good - I hope all your future paths are full of sunshine.

MorningAJ said...

I'm a great believer in the idea that it doesn't matter what route you take - your life's journey will fetch you up in some key destinations you have to reach, one way or another.

For example. When my marriage broke up I was wworking in Birmingham (UK) but my job came to an end as well and I moved about 40 miles north. Six months later I met the wonderful Mister AJ who (at the time) lived in Birmingham.

I grew up in a holiday town where he had spent a lot of his childhood holidays, and he grew up in a city that I visited regularly during my childhood.

I think we were destined to meet - it just took a while!