...miles to go....

“… but I have promises to keep,

…and miles to go before I sleep.

…and miles to go before I sleep.”      

When I was in second grade, my best friend’s mother insisted that we memorize the poem, “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” by Robert Frost… There was no real reason except that it was one of her favorites and she wanted Frost to be one of our favorite Poets as well…. and so, we learned it…. I could never imagine then how many times I would call upon those three lines to get me through life whenever I felt I could not see the light at the end of the tunnel…  It is one of the few poems I still remember and can recite… (the other poem is, also, a Frost poem.. “Fire and Ice”) …

Years ago, when my boys were 5 and 3 years old, I took them to Gatlinburg. During one of the hikes we took, they began their whining, which was understandable because it was cold and wet as we travelled up the mountain trail.. so, I started reciting the poem to distract them… and it worked… they were so inquisitive and kept interrupting me and asking me, “well, whose woods are they?” … and “what is a harness bell?” … and “how come it’s called “downy flake?” … lol… and eventually, as I repeated the poem, they learned a lot of it as well… to this day, my oldest remembers most of it and on our weekend trip to Georgia, as we hiked the trail at “Red Mountain”,  he turned to his 6 year old cousin and said, “Whose woods these are I think I know……”  

…and so… all weekend, I seemed to be thinking about each individual I was with… about all the “miles” we all need to go still…. my brother, at 43 years of age, is back in school studying to be a Chiropractor… his entire life has changed already… My two teenage boys, ages 18 and 16, had their weekly melt-down of wanting to kill each other…  My 12 year old nephew did not want to do homework and was lying about it... my 9 year old niece only brought 2 leggings to wear for 5 days (mind you it was in the 40’s) so we had to wash them by hand daily.. my 10 year old Aspie thought it was okay to veer off the trail and would disappear into the woods saying that he was like “Connor” from Assassin’s Creed… and my 6 year old nephew, well… he is 6 and doesn’t have a care in the world…. He could go a million miles without any sleep…

Naturally, WE all know what the “miles” mean… right? I don’t think any of us really dwell on it too much though… we plan as best we can for the future, but “life” sometimes deals us cards we would rather throw back… I am not one to worry about the “miles” I have to go, however, I do worry about what is in store for my children… and we speak openly about a lot of “life” things (maybe too openly) because I want them to be aware… I can’t be certain that they listen all the time, but my hope is that they if they are in a situation where they aren’t quite sure what to do, their memory will re-call one of my stories in a “deja-vu” kind of way …..

Anyway, I chose to travel with all these characters to see my brother for the long weekend… that, in itself, was an adventurous decision… but, it was worth it… it was a great time of reflection for me…. And I think we all learned some valuable lessons about one another and how other people’s actions (or lack thereof) can easily change the road you’re on…. The kids experienced this first-hand when we landed in  Fort Lauderdale.  I really was expecting that someone would be there to pick us up, however, I will just say there was a  “misunderstanding” of sorts (so as to keep the peace in the family). 

There I was with 6 children, who ate breakfast at 8:00am and were now sitting on the sidewalk of Terminal 4 at 1:00pm telling me they were hungry and asking me how we were getting home…. To keep calm, I was silently repeating a “grateful” mantra…. "I am grateful for the sun; I am grateful for the moon; I am grateful for the trees; I am grateful for the grass…" I looked up and saw a sign on the column, took a deep breath and said, “There’s a free shuttle to the Tri-Rail station.. I guess we will take the train to Miami” … (that was our Clint Eastwood moment… “Improvise, Adapt and Overcome”) …lol……. not one disgruntling word was uttered from any of their mouths… meanwhile, under my breath, I was certainly muttering some choice words…. My oldest shrugged his shoulders at me and then turned to the rest of them and said, “You all might as well learn how to travel now, else you’ll never be able to travel in Europe for a month like I did.” …. They agreed, gave one another high-fives and we were on our way….

Three and a half hours later, we finally made it home…

I kept my promise… 

Later, as I was tucking my Aspie in, he said, “Mama, that was a great adventure today… we traveled 690.6 miles to get home.” … “wow, really?”.. “yes… I googled it… that’s a lot of miles… I think we can go to sleep now… “ …. “LOL…. Yes, I suppose we can.” 

Some other day I’ll explain what it means when I say…….

“… but I have promises to keep,

…and miles to go before I sleep.

…and miles to go before I sleep.”