Greetings and salutations!
At this, the beginning of a new year, I am excited and energized about 2017.
This may sound confusing given that last year produced such angst for so many of us. I must admit that I spent the waning days worried about our nation and our people. As 2016 came to a close, however, I decided to do something I have seldom done before: I would make a resolution. Just one.
In 2017 I will take the road not taken.
For those of you who don’t know about the “road not taken,” I recommend the poem by that name written by Robert Frost.
Briefly, Frost says we all choose our roads and that when we choose those less traveled it makes all the difference in our lives. Most of us take the roads more traveled. I have. But just because that has been my course in the past does not mean there are no more choices to make; choices that can still make a difference in me and in the world.
So, I am resolving to live outside my comfort zone in 2017. That means doing things that scare me, might embarrass me, definitely stretch me. That means meeting new people, reading new books, WRITING new books, going new places, trying things that make me uncomfortable. It means learning to dance, play the piano, learn Spanish.
I may not get it all done in 2017, but it won’t be for lack of trying… or choosing.
2017 is the year of the path not taken. That will mean new ways of thinking, new projects, awkward, challenging, actions. I am excited about it and am convinced it will, in the words of the poet, “make all the difference.”
Care to join me?
Happy New Year, Paso Robles!
Steven W. Martin
Mayor, City of Paso Robles