The path not taken—twice.
There comes a point in every person’s life when you have a choice to make.
This choice is laid out before you as if you had been walking along a road and it suddenly came to a fork.
There you are, standing at this fork in the road, and you have to pick which way to go. There may not necessarily be right or wrong path, but with whichever path you choose you will have to walk through all the twists, turns, bumps and puddles, uphill, downhill, and all.
You may not know how long you will be on this road but what you do know is that whichever path you take, it is going to be one of the most significant roads in your life. You are scared, and unsure, but you have to keep walking and you have to choose a path. Then, you take that step, you begin walking and you start to see what’s ahead. Most likely within a few miles, if not a few feet, you find out if that path was what you wanted, or what you expected.
I recently came to a fork in my own life’s road.
A few months ago I met a wonderful man. I will call this man Henry. Henry and I hit it off immediately after meeting. He was sweet, adoring, loving, kind, protective, gentle, and good. He understood me, and I’m kind of a complicated woman, so that said a lot! He was even so good that he really took a sincere interest in my children. To be honest it did seem a bit too good to be true. HE, seemed too good to be true, but I trusted it and I trusted him. Henry was introduced to me by a mutual friend. This friend I have known for many years and know her to be a wonderful person, so I trusted her judgment, and ignored that too good to be true feeling. Henry lives an hour or so away from me, and I have three kids so he came to see me on the weekends. It was easier for all of us that way, not having to tote three kids around. I also wanted my kids to be in their own territory while they were getting used to Henry, and Henry agreed it was the best thing to do. I told Henry in the beginning of our relationship that I had several weeks of events going on, and if he wanted to see me, he’d could either wait, or tag along.
Henry chose to tag along. I was delighted that Henry wanted to see me so badly that he was agreeing to tagging along with us to T-Ball, Girl Scouting, swimming, ballet, and all the many events that we were committed to. Henry even came over one weekend while I was gone for a night at a concert. Henry cleaned my house that night, and waited for me. I could not believe it when I walked into my house, and it was so clean, it damn near sparkled. I mean, I have three kids and they are little so the house rarely ever sparkles. I clean, but not like THAT! During the following week, Henry had asked me during a phone conversation to try and keep the house clean like he left it. I laughed. He was serious though. I did not realize until much later how serious he really was. Henry had also requested that if I had any errands to run that I get them done before the weekend so that he and I could have more time together, and without the chaos. Henry also requested that I not have so many events planned. I understood that; he had a valid request. The previous weekends had been a bit chaotic because we had commitments and I had to run to the store, or to the mall, or somewhere to get something we needed. Running these tedious errands while trying to get to T-ball, or dance, or whatever else we had going, was stressful. I had also explained to Henry from the very beginning that I would be very busy, but things would settle down in a few weeks. The weekend came, and Henry came over again. Henry complained to me about the dishes not being done. I didn’t think much of it since it was MY house. I did appreciate his help, don’t get me wrong. However, the dirty dishes in my sink were not big deal to me. I had planned on doing those dishes the next day, before I cooked dinner and I told Henry this.
