There are many roads to tread upon
As the journey goes along
The roads that you alone can choose
With all the gain, and much to lose

I wonder where the voyage goes
How you start it, when it ends
The roads upon the ground are rough
And all in all it all depends

But the best is when my thought will wander
To valleys low, and mountains high
And I wonder what is over yonder
Beyond the distant pale-blue skies

A single step will start the mile
And still I go, but all the while
I think of when I’ll reach the top
Am I finished? Do I stop?

What happens to all who I have met?
Do I forget? Or haven’t yet?
And all the places on the way
Are they really far away?

All the things that I have earned
Are they nothing to be gained?
And all the lessons I have learned
Do they really make a stain?

Could there even be a summit?
How will I know it when I’m there?
Or will it be a hole, and down I’ll plummet
Into the depths of who-knows-where?

Ahead of myself, that’s where I’m getting
After all, the sun is barely setting!
I’ve still got a ways to go
Before I’ve made it, then I’ll know

Soon I come to a forked old road
One trail is trodden, the other spared
And as I had once been wisely told
I skip the one that has more wear

Rolling hills and grassy plains
Flooding rivers, gentle rains
Rough terrain that gives me trouble
And yet I trudge on through the rubble

My head held high, without a care
Though I’m faced with danger here and there
And sometimes fail, more times than ten
I pick myself back up again

The prize in mind: the final climb
Up to the top and there I’ll stand
The mountain’s shadow tells the time
As it moves across the land

Like petals in a distant breeze
Atop the mountain, float with ease
And down into the valleys low
Where I will look on down below

But by then would I have overlooked?
Was there a tree I hadn’t shook?
An unknown land I’d wished to travel
Through woods or field; dirt or gravel?

In one of those will I find you?
Will you have been looking for me too?
Then we could reach the top together,
In sun or rain or any weather

The trail is older than it seems
Many have crossed; most turn back down
How many finish, or have seen
The world beneath them, all around?

But what’s it worth if the climb has ended
And many places are left untended?
Waiting for a footstep here,
A traveler ready to explore it near

Does the journey really end?
Have you really seen it all?
There’s more than bones that have to mend
If you stumble, when you fall

What seemed once like such a chore
Doesn’t scare me anymore
And boldly on my way I go
To where for now, I do not know

With a skip in my step and a song in my heart
I walk a bit farther to get a good start
And realize with a small sensation
It’s the journey, not the destination