Not lost

I’ve always been drawn to the line from J.R.R. Tolkien, who said, “Not all who wander are lost.”

I love the idea of a routine-free summer and complete recharge. Somewhere along the line, we have been told that people who meander or go at a slower pace either don’t know where they are going or won’t make it in time. The reality is, they are the ones who actually get it. It’s not that they aren’t motivated or don’t know where they plan to go. They just move at a different pace and get there eventually.

I look at my son, Pat when he is walking in a line with his class. As a teacher in the same building where my kids go to school, I’m constantly comparing him to the other kids in the class and noticing their behavior and maturity in relation to the other students. I watch how he walks in a line with his class and laugh to myself that he tends to meander along and moves at his own pace. He will pretend he’s a ninja or start randomly skipping. It’s not that he doesn’t know where he’s going – he’s just not in a big hurry and whatever is happening in his imagination is more interesting than the straightness of his line.

Pat is a good example and reminder to myself to slow down a bit. Not everything needs to be in a straight line and sometimes meandering and taking your time is best because there’s stuff he points out to me all the time that I wouldn’t notice without him because I’m in a hurry or too busy making sure I’m staying in the straight line myself.

We go nonstop throughout the school year so we hardly have time to reset and pause. I talk to many people who, as soon as summer hits, they use it as an opportunity to continue to fill their schedules with camps and various activities. Of course, some of that is needed and a great thing, but I do believe summer should be a time to slow down and recover a bit from the rat race of the school year. Summer is meant to sleep in, make memories, be outside, and just relax.

I notice how many of my students come back after summer and seem to have grown so much and realize what some sunshine and proper rest can do for a body.

The thing is, though, it’s not just for the little kids who need the sunshine and rest. We adults need it now as much as they do. Imagine how great we would all look if we spent more time outdoors (with proper SPF, of course) and our phones out of our reach.

The next time I find myself in a hurry or giving my kids grief about us being late, I will try to remind myself that we are all going to the same place and to just relax a bit. There’s a time to be early and on top of things. There is a time to walk in a straight line and not meander, but that time isn’t summer and it sure isn’t when our children are little. Perhaps if we meandered more along as we were headed to our next destination, we would be happier and notice more.

Pat isn’t lost – he’s actually finding things many of us stopped noticing because we are in such a hurry to get where we are headed and make sure our line is straight.

Megan Rathz is a wife, mother, and teacher. She says everything she has ever learned in life came from her Master Gardener mother.