It’s day 4 of the blog every day in May challenge. The topic today is your favorite quote from a person or book and why you love it.
I guess I’m not really one to collect favorite quotes because when I read the prompt for today I was blank. I don’t have one off the top of my head. The only one I can think of that I have a connection to is perhaps a bit cliche but for the sake of sharing I’ll let you in on it.
The quote is this: “Not all those who wander are lost.” J.R.R Tolkien and this is why it means something to me.
Perhaps a quick back story first. By the time I was 15 my parents were divorced and my sister, brother and I would spend the summers with my mom. Also the summer camp my dad started when I was little ended when I was 9. The summer I was 15 my dad was leading his second summer of an educational summer camp run through the local community college. It was the summer I needed to take driver’s education so I was staying with my dad for a few weeks.
It was also the summer I was doing some real soul searching and trying to decide what was really important to me. I started dressing more rugged or outdoorsy if you will. I let my hair go natural and stopped wearing makeup. I also stopped shaving my legs. I had decided all of these things were distracting me from what was really important in my life and what I should be focused on. At that time I think it was feeling the connection to nature and how alive it made me feel.
Anyhow it was during this time I was taking a walk through the woods at night in the total darkness with a couple of the counselors. We were letting our eyes adjust to the darkness and using our senses to find our way back. One of them asked me if I was still not shaving my legs, I replied yes, and he shared this quote with me. At the time I interpreted it as me deviating from what was expected and trying to find my own way and that it was alright to be different. At that age when things can be so awkward and you just want to fit in it was good to hear. Over the years I may not have remembered the story quite right but I remember the feeling and that is what has stuck.
