The great poet Robert Frost wrote a poem titled “The Road Not Taken.”

The premise of the poem is that all of us encounter forks in the road we are traveling that require us to make a choice as to where we will go next.

There has been a stir in the media as of late due to a recent post by an “influencer”. This is not a political piece nor a judgment on anyone but rather a journey down a path less traveled.

In May of 1962, a tiny little boy was born to a young military couple in their early twenties in El Paso, Texas. His name was Michael, and he had Down Syndrome. In 1960, little was known about this syndrome, and my parents were encouraged to leave him in an institution in Texas and resume their life. My parents chose to travel an unknown road.

No one could have guessed the incredible graces and love that would fill our household for the next 59 years. All of my siblings learned to experience life in ways only Michael could teach us. We learned to defend the weak and the “different” among us. We learned to be patient and above all things, we learned to see the inherent dignity in every human life.

My parents could have taken the road traveled by the influencers and ended Michael’s life, and with it terminated six decades of incredible blessings and grace.

Life asks hard things of us all at one point or another, and rarely is the road we walk easy, but it is always an opportunity for God to show his goodness in ways we cannot foresee.

 As the poem closes, Frost writes:

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.

I pray each of you remember you are never alone on the roads you travel, and God is ever present, loving us and blessing us each step of the way.

Yours in the Heart of Jesus,

Donna