I am at a bit of crossroads with my writing, my writing career (two different things), and my life in general. A friend sent me this poem yesterday to help me remember what is important to me and how taking the easy way out is not going to help me reach my goals. It’s the sort of poem I looked for when I was in Junior High and High School; the kind I would write in every one of my notebooks and pin up on the wall in my room. Right now it is on the wall next to Mary Oliver’s JOURNEY.

You enter the forest
at the darkest point,
where there is no path.

Where there is a way or path,
it is someone else’s path.

You are not on your own path.

If you follow someone else’s way,
you are not going to realize
your potential.

It takes courage
to do what you want.

Other people
have a lot of plans for you.

Nobody wants you to do
what you want to do.
They want you to go on their trip…

– Joseph Campbell