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