Wayfarers All
I just finished reading "The Wind in the Willows." It was really good. One of my favorite chapters was entitled "Wayfarers All" and I just really liked the suggestion of that title. I guess I'm experiencing the itchy foot again and I want to get moving.
The chapter is about Water Rat, quite a homebody. He's content with his home and river and little boats and adventures he has. He never desires to go anywhere beyond what he knows, except once...
`No, you don't understand, naturally,' said the second swallow. `First, we feel it stirring within us, a sweet unrest; then back come the recollections one by one, like homing pigeons. They flutter through our dreams at night, they fly with us in our wheelings and circlings by day. We hunger to inquire of each other, to compare notes and assure ourselves that it was all really true, as one by one the scents and sounds and names of long-forgotten places come gradually back and beckon to us.'
...
...
With closed eyes [Rat] dared to dream a moment in full abandonment, and when he looked again the river seemed steely and chill, the green fields grey and lightless. Then his loyal heart seemed to cry out on his weaker self for its treachery.
`Why do you ever come back, then, at all?' he demanded of the swallows jealously. `What do you find to attract you in this poor drab little country?'
`And do you think,' said the first swallow, `that the other call is not for us too, in its due season?'
I like the responses of the swallows, and I feel I can empathize with the Rat. Sometimes home seems too gray and dreary, but it deserves loyalty. But then the swallows are called both to the South, and then to come back...
`In due time,' said the third, `we shall be home-sick once more for quiet water-lilies swaying on the surface of an English stream. But to-day all that seems pale and thin and very far away. Just now our blood dances to other music.'
Ecclesiastes 3:1, 5a "There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under heaven: ... a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them..."
I guess I just felt the need to post something new.
The chapter is about Water Rat, quite a homebody. He's content with his home and river and little boats and adventures he has. He never desires to go anywhere beyond what he knows, except once...
`No, you don't understand, naturally,' said the second swallow. `First, we feel it stirring within us, a sweet unrest; then back come the recollections one by one, like homing pigeons. They flutter through our dreams at night, they fly with us in our wheelings and circlings by day. We hunger to inquire of each other, to compare notes and assure ourselves that it was all really true, as one by one the scents and sounds and names of long-forgotten places come gradually back and beckon to us.'
...
...
With closed eyes [Rat] dared to dream a moment in full abandonment, and when he looked again the river seemed steely and chill, the green fields grey and lightless. Then his loyal heart seemed to cry out on his weaker self for its treachery.
`Why do you ever come back, then, at all?' he demanded of the swallows jealously. `What do you find to attract you in this poor drab little country?'
`And do you think,' said the first swallow, `that the other call is not for us too, in its due season?'
I like the responses of the swallows, and I feel I can empathize with the Rat. Sometimes home seems too gray and dreary, but it deserves loyalty. But then the swallows are called both to the South, and then to come back...
`In due time,' said the third, `we shall be home-sick once more for quiet water-lilies swaying on the surface of an English stream. But to-day all that seems pale and thin and very far away. Just now our blood dances to other music.'
Ecclesiastes 3:1, 5a "There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under heaven: ... a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them..."
I guess I just felt the need to post something new.