Born under a wandering star

I woke this morning with the old Lee Marvin song "I was born under a wandering star" from the movie Paint Your Wagon in my head.  I suppose it is because we discussed this subject at book club last night.  Paint Your Wagon is one of my all-time favorite movies.  If you have never seen it I highly recommend it.  The wanderer is a type of person who follows his dreams and desires; enjoys life to its fullest; spends his time with others like him on the road of life; lives, loves, and moves on as the wind takes him.  I've done this a time or two in my life and I can say I have never been happier than when I have been completely free and wandering. There is a feeling that takes you with it on the wind and sends you on to experience all that life can throw at you with enthusiasm and desire to live it.  There is comraderie in your fellow wanderers that never goes away, even if you fall off the wagon and return to the common life.  You can always get back on and go wandering again.  The spirit follows you whereever you go.  Perhaps that is what grabs me so.  I was never so free as the time I ran away to the mountains for a week and did not tell anyone where I went.  I simply disappeared to the wilderness and the wilderness took me in.  It cradled me and it comforted me and it spit me back out a stronger person.  In the world today I forget that I can go back there and find peace.  If I was "born under a wandering star" then that is where my happiness will always lie.

Also, from my favorite book series by JRR Tolkein:

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.