Not All Those Who Wander Are Lost

 

You’ve heard the saying many times, “not all those who wander are lost.” 

The saying was part of a poem in J.R.R. Tolkein’s beloved book “The Fellowship of the Ring.” (Book one of the Lord of the Rings trilogy). The poem, titled “The Riddle of Strider” was given to Frodo as a clue in his quest to find Aragorn on his journey to deliver the Ring. 

I’ll spare you the details of the Lord of the Rings story. Here’s the poem: 

“All that is gold does not glitter,

Not all those who wander are lost;

The old that is strong does not wither,

Deep roots are not reached by the frost.

From the ashes a fire shall be woken,

A light from the shadows shall spring;

Renewed shall be blade that was broken,

The crownless again shall be king.” 

There are lots of references to future LOTR events in this poem, but I want to focus on the bigger picture of the story. 

Frodo’s journey was not easy. It was terrifying. Frodo was also, probably, not the most equipped person for this journey. He wouldn’t have been on the top of my list to deliver the Ring. 

Frodo also didn’t really choose this journey. It was given to him. Despite his own quirks, Frodo succeeded, and he found himself along the way.

Not to be a total Tolkein nerd, but I love the story of the Lord of the Rings. How an ill-equipped weirdo accomplished something incredible. 

Now, back to the wandering bit. 

Like my love for LOTR, I’ve always loved the phrase “Not all those who wander are lost.” I first encountered the phrase on a Life Is Good t-shirt (do people still wear those shirts?) 

I, like most people, never felt like I fit neatly into social groups or identities. Not quite girly enough to seamlessly blend into the girls lunch table, but also definitely not a boy and definitely felt awkward at the boys table. Same for the popular table, the athlete table and the nerd table. 

I would argue none of us perfectly fit at any table. I found myself bouncing from table to table, taking a bit of what I liked and going off to another table for something else I didn’t get from the first table. 

Like Frodo, I have my quirks and may or may not be the first person people think of when faced with choosing a person to complete an important, world-altering task. Like Frodo, I've fallen on my face and (metaphorically) nearly died while enduring challenges faced in my measly 25 years of life.

But I've learned more than I ever imagined. I've had more fun than ever imagined.

This is a strange analogy for wandering, I know, but I think most of us identify with that awful feeling of holding your lunch tray and scanning the room to decide which table to join. 

I feel like I’ve never stopped wandering. When I was young, I would daydream about how I would “figure things out” when I was older. I imagined how great it would be to be so figured out. 

My life now is wildly different than I imagined it would be when I was young, but it’s also so much more interesting than I could have imagined. I find that the more I’m willing to wander, to discover, to ask questions, to change my mind and nearly die, the more beautiful the world looks. 

Don’t be afraid to wander. Being a wanderer is a badge of honor. It’s the mark of someone whose unwilling to become stagnant. 

I’m going to keep on wandering. I may wander forever, and that’s perfectly fine. The discovery and the challenge is the joy of the wandering. 

If anyone tells you they’ve arrived, they’re lying. The beauty of the human experience is the wandering, the discovering and finding connection along the way. 

I’ve made and lost friends, not because of a conflict, but because our own journeys took us away from one another. I’m grateful for those friendships, though I miss them. 

I resolve to wander forever. To continue to question, to challenge and to change. Maybe, like Frodo, I’ll have more adventures than I ever imagined.

My mom got me a new planner for Christmas. Can you guess which quote is on the cover?