Roads carry us to many places.. We travel them daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly. They get us to where we are going. Some have many curves, hills, mountains, peaks, valleys, and detours. Others may be narrow, wide, whining, smooth, or rocky. If we stay on a road sooner or later we get where we are going. Depending on conditions as we travel, we may have to vary or change our course. We may have to stop many times and review our maps. There are even times when obstacles may arise and we may have to choose a different direction to reach our destination. At times we may speed quickly while other times our travel goes very slow depending on many conditions at the time.
Just like the roads that we travel daily, Boomers travel the road of life. We have experienced rocky places,curves, peaks, valleys and detours. We have seen war times in our younger years and now. Some Boomers have climbed to the peaks in their careers while others fell to the valley during the recession. Boomers have experienced loss in divorces or by death of a spouse. We have seen children grow and leave us with an empty nest. Other boomers may have acclaimed fame and prosperity. In our early years we were there when President John F.Kennedy and Nobel Peace Price winner, Martin Luther King, were assassinated. We were there when the first man landed on the moon. We continued our life journey as computers first came into our offices to replace the old type writers. Some of our favorite music has changed. Some our television favorite comedians,movie stars, song writers and singers are no longer with us.
In today’s world we are now looking at our maps again as we go into our retirement years. Retirement may mean that we continue working or make a job change. Some will be heading to small towns to start a small business.. Others may be leaving the small town to join their grown children in city living. Those that are single may be considering dating again or finding new social activities at senior centers, churches and in over 55 communities. Couples may be preparing to travel the world and experience things that they have never experienced before. Many boomers are contacting colleges to take courses of interest or finish a degree. There are boomers that are having to pick themselves up, brush themselves off and start all over again. Boomers are making choices to age in places or make geographical changes to live out their retirement age years.
Yes it is true. Most roads are not clear and all smooth as we would want them to be. Regardless of that fact, boomers will continue on their journey. We will do what we need to do. We will use our maps, our life experiences and persist in these changing times. We will meet health challenges just like those before us did. We will face our day to day living with pride and dignity. We will continue to make a difference in the world that we live. We will continue on the Boomer Road of Life!
With that said, I would like to end with a poem written by Robert Frost. The poem has been analyzed in many ways and was one of his best but tricky. See if you can figure it out!
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
Resource: Poets.org.
Originally posted 2011-04-28 12:48:35.