Promises..."lovely,dark and deep"

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

BY ROBERT FROST

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound’s the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
Robert Frost, “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” from The Poetry of Robert Frost, edited by Edward Connery Lathem. Copyright 1923, © 1969 by Henry Holt and Company, Inc., renewed 1951, by Robert Frost. Reprinted with the permission of Henry Holt and Company, LLC.

I have read and remembered this poem at various times in my life,each time a new meaning is offered , i see new aspects of the unfolding of my life with each return to Frost's timeless,spaceless subtle yet penetrating words.This time what I remember is waking up often in the middle of the night panicked ,trying to find answers within myself,instead of waiting,letting the answers gently surface without force.What I have rediscovered that Frost reminds me so well with his words is that "i have promises to keep" that those promises are uniquely mine and they are hard earned promises that I cherish,that my life would have no meaning ,that it would be woefully incomplete if I was not always actively working on the most important one or two promises that I will always live for and by and I imagine will one day die for as well, die for in the way "one lives a life well lived". So to keep these promises, bring them to fruition. to an active facilitated reality,I have infinite miles"to go before I sleep".
And for me the reward in the present for trying to keep those promises to myself and directly or indirectly to those that I love is, sometimes on my path I will have the great good fortune to see, to know" the woods (through my life,the promises I attempt to keep) are lovely,dark and deep...."