I have mentioned previously my brief time living in Bar Harbor, Maine and experiencing the awe of Acadia National Park.  Recently, I came across the following entry I made in a journal I kept during this experience.  This entry was made during (I made notes in my phone as I hiked) and after a beautiful hike through the Jesup and the Hemlock Road Paths in the park.  

The sun was bright, a cool breeze tickled the leaves on the trees while colors of red, yellow, and orange danced in the breeze and then rained down to the ground.  I listened to a woodpecker in the distance somewhere and just breathed in the fresh autumn air.  I began to feel a part of something greater than myself.

Jesup Path led me to the Hemlock Road Path.  I looked up the path, it looked a bit isolated and dark.  I thought, “If I go up this path will a moose get me?”  While there are moose in northern Maine, there are no moose in Acadia National Park or on Mount Desert Island, so I was safe from a moose encounter, so I ventured forward.

I started up the path. I spotted a large tree that had fallen alongside the path . . . my inner voice asked, “If a tree falls in the mountains, does it make a sound?”  With that question posed, my inner voice chatted away for the rest of my hike.   Questions like:  How is this path like or unlike other unknown paths in your life?  What will you learn from this path?

Suddenly, I am at the end of the Hemlock Road Path, and what do I find but five different paths leading in different directions.  Talk about being at the crossroads!  My inner voice began to recite a line from Robert Frost’s poem, The Road Not Taken . . .”Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,” but I had five.  My voice asked, “Which road leads to my next adventure?”  I looked down all five paths, I stood at these crossroads and laughed to myself asking, “How is this different?”  Then I heard my answer, “It’s not, you have always had a choice.  You have always ventured ahead.”  I selected the next path purely by  intuition.  My intuition guided me down the path home (okay back to my car). 

Reading this entry again, what I have realized is each of the five paths would have brought me to another adventure.  What is important is to pick a path without fear and venture ahead!  I also realized my intuition guides me, trust it!

What is your next path?

How does your intuition serve you?