Not all those who wander are lost;
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.

J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring (The Lord of the Rings,) 
This is a poem from Tolkien’s work The Lord of the Rings. It is in many ways specific for a particular person but like all good poetry and prophecy it has a timeless message for those who listen. 
I believe to wander whether on an actual pilgrimage or in one’s life in the comfortable surroundings of familiar places allows the heart to expand and grow, to begin to see things in new perspectives and in new ways. This is perhaps a very different understanding than the norm: To wander for so many means to have no direction. 
To wander is not always to be lost but rather to be finding new paths, new vistas, new strength; it is to find hope restored. 
“Not all who wander are lost!”

One of the challenges for me this time is trying to update my blog posts and try a new blog setting. I am working on this so you may have to bear with me on this. One way or another you will hear from me for this journey if I have to post on two formats for a little while. But please come along for the journey…with every journey there are challenges!

 

 

As I prepare to walk the Camino de Santiago again people keep asking me questions, “Are you crazy?” “Why do you want to walk that again?” “Why not walk something different?” I hope that over the next several weeks I can begin to answer these questions. But for now I will simply say that the original idea was that my daughter, Lindsay and I were to walk the Camino together two years ago. She went back to school so I walked by myself. We are now able to walk together and we are seizing this opportunity. We look forward to you following our journey here, on Royalrunners and on A Dame in Spain.

Just getting acquainted with this new site. And like most new things I’m stumbling around, fumbling around really in the dark. But I don’t give up easily so I will keep trying and try to discover how to get this to work.