This morning, I came across this lovely J.R.R. Tolkien poem by way of the excellent blogger and writer Lindsey Mead.
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
It’s that “Not all those who wander are lost;” line that really gets to me. To be honest, in life and in fiction I’d rather spend my time with those that have wandered a little bit than those that always knew their path. Though if I were to be perfectly honest, I fall more into the boring camp myself. If if helps though I would attribute this less to knowing something about myself and what I’m meant to do and more to a lack of courage on my part to wander off the path.
The Struggling Writer 
Beautifully honest. I also need to do more wandering off the safe path. Way too much of my life is by default. Thanks for getting me to think about that today.
Thanks for stopping by and commenting.
Reblogged this on Life at the College of the Crones and commented:
I love this poem from my favorite author. It reminds me that there is always hope.
The poems for me is a lifting me out of pessimism. Thanks to you I am starting anew.
Thank you for reading! I too struggle with pessimism.
He has some very wonderful quotes. In The Fellowship of the Rings, in the beginning, there was a poem or song nearly every other page!
I have been wandering too much I guess. Although I have been able to experience things that would otherwise be unknown to me still at times, I feel lost.
Beautifully written though. Thank you for sharing! 🙂
So. Much. Yes.
That one always got me, too. Glad someone else appriciates it. It’s getting out of our comfort zone (or letting someone else do it for us). Sometimes living our life through someone else is enough. Maybe that’s why we are such social creatures and this internet thing is catching on 🙂
🙂