Mid-Week Confessions or Deep Thoughts?...
Robert Frost, The Alchemist, and a dear friend

  A girlfriend recommended a book to me months ago, and as an avid reader I couldn't deny the intrigue the suggestion stirred in me.  I had plucked the book from numerous shelves, but being distracted by so many others I always returned it to its home.  I guess in the grand scheme of things the timing for me and those pages hadn't come to be, yet!
  Let me first tell you a bit about her......she is fantastic.  The type of friend who, regardless of the time spent apart, the years between visits, the months between Skype sessions, or the adventures her life takes her on, always remains the same.
  She has had many noteworthy adventures over the past few years that could easily pad her mind with pretension, elevate her to varying levels of status, or have her turning her nose up  and away from this old friend.  But no, that's not her, and to me, though I respect and admire the way she tackles everything that comes her way, to me she is the same young girl who I got to see a small chunk of the world with, carrying only a backpack as I shared parts of my heart no one else would ever listen to.
  You get the idea at this point, she is special.
  This book is as well.  It was what I needed in the exact moment.  It spoke to my heart, stirred me to the edge of my comfort zone, and challenged me to dig deep, to look beyond what I could see, and to address the fears that had lived inside of me too long.  Surprisingly, it even brought about one or two deep belly laughs (I'm awful fond of the laughing, so this was not only a pleasant surprise but an added characteristic to rave about).   
  The book itself didn't change my life, but where I will give credit is to the Small Voice that used the words on the pages to push me.  It pushed me where I needed to go, where my dizzy over-thinking mind needed prompting and where my hands and feet needed to be sent into action.  I was in action before I cracked the spine, don't get me wrong, I was not an unwilling participant, I jumped in ready to face my fears.  However, it firmed up in me the lessons I already knew and understood.
  Can a book push you down a new path, towards your dreams, out on the ledge where, let me tell you if the past few months have been any sort of indicator, life is terrifying and filled with moments of utter loneliness and overwhelming uncertainty?
  Maybe.  
  Maybe not.  
  That's not something I can answer for anyone apart from myself and to give a simple story all the credit would be blasphemous.

  What I am more than certain of and will forever be benefited by has been the process of this journey I'm on.
  I've stepped off that ledge.  My wings haven't yet grown strong enough to hold my weight, but the thing is it doesn't really matter, each day I grow stronger and can see a few feet further.  And the best part is I'm not alone.  
  When you make changes you shake loose the chaff and solidify the sinews that support you, hold you up, and carry you when you feel yourself flagging.

  If you get no further into the pages than the Introduction and the Prologue, I hope you are challenged, because that's what it's about.  
  Are you staring challenge in the face?  Avoiding conflict or the mere idea of setting your feet down a new path?  
  You've heard it before, that trusty and beloved Robert Frost poem; 
        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.


  P.S.  Thank you, beautiful old friend, you are always an encouragement, something that is often rare yet oh so special in this mad, mad world where at every turn someone is anxiously waiting to tear you down!