Fork In The Road
a book in the making by Don Shapiro Ever made a choice by following your inner wisdom with surprising results? Share your story, read others' stories and offer comments to help discover more about how our inner wisdom works.Media Room
Birth of the Book’s Title
In 2005, I engaged in a lengthy email exchange with a family member about a problem. She had written me a long email explaining what was going on. So I wrote her a long email back. Then she wrote me a long email in response. That led to another email from me.
By the time we got to the third round of these long emails, I was digging pretty deep inside myself for something that might be helpful. I was trying to find a way to help her look at her situation through a fresh window.
Halfway through my third long email typing at over 120 words a minute, just cruising along the writer’s highway, suddenly this phrase appeared “life is a fork in the road…follow your head or follow your heart.”
While the rest of the thoughts expressed in those emails are long forgotten, the phrase “life is a fork in the road” took on a life of its own. It followed me around. More thoughts about its meaning crept into my awareness. So I started writing these ideas down.
This went on for over a year before it occurred to me that I was starting to write a book. Another year went by while I continued to jot ideas down. Around that time, I sold a condo I owned in Las Vegas to Derian King. One day while talking with her, I told her about my book idea. She is the first person outside of my family I had ever mentioned it to.
Derian’s eyes sparkled as she told me a story about how she saved a couple stranded in a snowstorm with their baby because a voice told her to turn left at the signal. That story was the first one shared on www.lifeisaforkintheroad.com
After hearing Derian’s story, I got this nagging feeling I was missing something important about my book. It was over two years later when I realized that I needed to go out and collect other people’s “fork in the road” stories for my book. Then I realized I needed to collect enough stories to support the conclusions of the book. This meant a full scale research project so the results of all the stories collected could shape the book’s conclusions.
It took another couple of years before I was able to figure out the best way to conduct that research and move this project forward. Now “fork in the road” story collection is in full swing thanks to the reach of the internet. A couple of months after launching the website, I received this sudden feeling that I needed to create a Facebook fan page. I had just started using Facebook and didn’t really understand a lot about it. That page turned out to be the missing link.
On the website, I talked about creating a worldwide community who could all share stories and insights about our inner voice. Originally, I thought my website would be that place. It turns out that was meant to happen on Facebook whose threaded conversations and shorter post proved an ideal environment for such a community to thrive. This community has now taken on a life of its own with people sharing from over 155 countries around the globe. Over 15,000 individuals from every major religion and belief system on the planet now regularly converse on the page.
“Life Is A Fork In The Road” found me. Since then, I have been guided by an inner voice and serendipitous events to turn it into a book and research project. Every step this project has taken all illustrate the message of the book. We are guided by something beyond ourselves that knows the best paths for us to follow….if we would only listen!
Copyright 2011 Don Shapiro
www.lifeisaforkintheroad.com
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- Life Is A Fork In The Road
Acrylic on canvas by Don Shapiro
www.abstract-fineart.com
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Life Is A Fork In The Road by Don Shapiro is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.Based on a work at www.lifeisaforkintheroad.com. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at www.lifeisaforkintheroad.com.
Yogi Berra once said, “when you come to the fork in the road, take it.”
He also said, “You can see a lot by observing.”
Like actual Forks in the road, neither of these two quotes help you make a decision. Robert Frost said “take the path less travelled by.” OK, that helps a little, It says take the path that suits you, not the path that’s recommended by others. But paths rarely run straight. Often there are steep grades, twists and turns, and roots on the path that can trip you up. Forest Gump’s Momma said “You never know what your gonna get.” Do you choose the flat and rectangular Chocolate? Or the dome shaped one? The dome shaped one was the first one you looked at. But You choose the rectangular one, because it reminds you of Hershey Bars And Everyone likes a Hershey Bar. You Bite in. NOT what you were expecting. More like Heath Bar than Hershey. Hard toffee filling. You Break a tooth.Your sister walks in and immediately chooses the dome shaped one. She brings it to her lips, anticipating the center filling. Maraschino Cherry. My Favorite. Now You’ve got a broken tooth and she has luscious cherry pie filling rolling down her chin. The Dome Shaped one is the first one You saw. The Dome shaped one caught your eye. I You happen to love Maraschino cherries.
Your Head told you the rectangular shape was familiar and safe. It said go for the familiar. But your Heart said, “go for that unusual one. you never know what You’re gonna get.” Your gut, However did know what you’d have gotten. You’d have gotten the one you liked. The one with the luscious Cherry pie filling like center. But why didn’t you listen to your gut? Your Head has a pretty strong Opinion.It uses a lot of descriptive pictures, and words. It’s like Owl in Winnie The Pooh. Your Heart has a pretty strong opinion, too. It says go for that curious shaped one. It’s , It’s Fun, fun, Fun, Fun, Fun. And it’s the only one like it in the Box.Your heart is very Much like Tigger, it’s racing around a lot, saying, decide, decide.
Your Gut, however, is also raising it’s voice, but the words and descriptions and fun, fun, fun, fun fun are getting in the way. It’s saying Go with the first one you saw. It says It’s time for a little smakerel, and the first one you saw will do. They go on battling it out. but, The poor gut, who’s down below can’t get a word in edgewise. He’s very much like Winnie the Pooh, a Bear of very little brain, who once said:“If the person you are talking to doesn’t appear to be listening, be patient. It may simply be that he has a small piece of fluff in his ear.”
if we remove the fluff from our ears, by spending more day to day time with a little friend called silence, we’ll have a better chance of listening to what our gut is saying. It’s always forth right, and it’s always our first instinct. And if we quiet ourselves and be still, with our fluff-free ears, we’ll be able to hear a loud and clear message. The only thing we can do is start listening and following it, and see what happens.
One thing’s for sure, what Charles Schwab once said “The difference between getting somewhere and nowhere is the courage to make an early start. The fellow who sits still and does just what he is told will never be told to do big things.”
And you never know what big, and true, and right on target things your gut has in store for you, until you listen to it.