"who lives in a purple house?"

Just as promised--here is the picture of the purple house--

now will the owner please raise their hand?

Choosing the road Less Traveled
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood
and sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveller, 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 feet 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 travelled by,
and that has made all the difference

Robert Frost



My daughter and I have a horrible sense of direction.  If there are two roads to take, you'd better believe that both of us would choose the road less traveled simply because most of the time we are so caught up in the visual scenery that we most often miss even seeing the road that everyone else takes.  Yesterday we decided to have a girls day and drove out of town to visit an art museum.   We did our traveling prep and printed out a map quest but just as we were beginning to think we were going to have no problems......there were were "Lost".   We have no internal GPS and so what should have taken us ninety minutes to drive ended up taking 180 minutes.  Funny thing is, we didn't get upset, didn't get stressed and really enjoyed our time being lost.  Let's just say, we created lots and lots of memories.

Our first stop during our lost time was way off the beaten path at a small convenience store in the middle of somewhere but I still couldn't tell you where we were.  I got out and went in and asked for directions-of course they told me to turn around and go back the way I just came.  I went to the van and we started to pull out when suddenly from across the road was the brightest paint job on a house that I've ever seen.

I immediately put the breaks on and my daughter said, "What are you doing?"

I replied, "look at that house!  Who lives in a purple house?????"   I had to stop, go back in the store, buy batteries and then stop and go back in because I bought the wrong size--I'm sure the lady behind the cash register thought that I was the "crazy customer that would not go away."   I took a picture of the purple house and have thought alot about what kind of person lives there---I must say, the story I've made up makes me a bit jealous of him/her.  Truth is--I'd love to be free enough of everything--- "what others think and what the expectations of the world are"----- to throw a rainbow of colors on the outside of my house and dare the world to look.  I would bet the person who lives there is creative, must be fully birthed into their authentic creation.   I wonder what the inside looks like?  eclectic, artistic, crazy.  I wonder if the person is a writer, a painter?  I am almost certain--I'd love being around.  I'd love to sit on the front porch with a glass of iced lemon aid, eat some chocolate chip cookies just out of the oven and share in some conversation about the mystery of the world.  I'd really like to meet that person.....underneath all this rambling today---perhaps, I'd really like to be comfortable enough in my own skin to live in my own purple house and be proud.

I am thankful for day with my daughter, laughing and talking in the car, for taking the road less taken and being lost but found and for the wonder of seeing a purple house.  Whoever this person is, whatever they do, whatever reason they painted the house purple----well let's just say, they have invited me to look at the hidden boundaries that keep me from the freedom of authentic living.  

two roads diverged and I'm glad I took the one less taken, for if not,

I'd never have seen a purple house.
Someday, I hope I'm free of all the "things" that hold me back,
all the "things" that keep me boxed in,
someday, when I'm birthed fully into my authentic self.....
maybe...if I'm lucky...I too will be the proud owner
of a purple house.