Wander with Me

Everyone experiences life differently. Some people are born with a distinctive sense of purpose that is as clear to them as knowing their own names.

“I was dancing before I could walk”, brags the dancer.

“I  built Leggo bridges”, muses the engineer.

But, I think the majority of us float around satisfied with several fantasies regarding who we may become and what we hope to accomplish. I am a part of the latter. I assume my state of indecisiveness is how most of my peers feel [here’s hoping for lots of friends].

I can usually recognize my fellow soul seeker when our paths cross. We are not the most put together people in the room. We generally reek of discontentment. The person stands in front of me, but his or her mind is far from the confines of the room. Little things in the way the person is dressed may give him away. For me, it was a feather sewn into my hair. It was subtle, hidden behind my ear, but it was there.

“Who in the world am I? Ah, that's the great puzzle.” 
― Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

It takes courage to wander. People assume if you have not uncovered your direction in life, then you’re somehow off track. It makes people very uncomfortable when they cannot place a label on someone they encounter. We all do it. We label. It’s in our nature to prune out unique, foreign traits and identify the familiar characteristics we understand. That social strategy serves an important purpose for us. For example, a man is holding a bloody knife.

Brain thinks: man with bloody knife in alley is dangerous vs. man with bloody knife in kitchen is Gordon Ramsey . Labeling someone, murderer vs chef, allows us to stack the odds in our favor when predicting their behavior.

 So, what happens when a person has not chosen their label yet? We tend to label them anyway. The unemployed graduate who left his stable job because he realized he was spending his youth serving a corporate lord, rather than finding meaning in his life. The choice may have lost him status, money, security, and stability. He might have to demean himself, by depending on others to get him from one day to the next. He may not be able to afford to buy new clothes. He may appear lesser to people who knew him before. These friends may look at him and think, “He’s so lost right now.” But, the day he had enough courage to diverge to a different path, may have been the day he began finding his way. That was the day he became a Wanderer.

“All those who wander are not lost.”
-J.R.R. Tolkien

They are still exploring. Finding the purpose the lies dormant at our core.

Not everyone is designed to jump with both feet into the water. Some people test the water. Testing the water can express itself in many forms. Sometimes it appears in a socially accepted role, but other times, it expresses itself in a more isolating shape. But there is so much beauty in the search. Finding your way can be filled with priceless experience,  and self enrichment. But a person can go infinitely further into that journey when their environment is conducive and their loved ones are supportive. Otherwise, condescension packs one hell of a sting.

There is no right or wrong way to live. This is one absolute truth I have grown to accept. This is true because life is infinitely personal. I choose to peruse the most minute intricacies of the world around me. Focusing primarily on the people that i am blessed to meet during this journey. There is an infinite range of emotions in each person. My definition of purpose is every individual seeking control in obtaining the happy shades of that spectrum. I wander to find my happy shades.

 “Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?"
"That depends a good deal on where you want to get to."
"I don't much care where –"
"Then it doesn't matter which way you go.” 
― Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland