Sometimes wandering is taking a break

“Not all those who wander are lost.” The quote by J.R.R. Tolkien came to mind as I pushed a shopping cart down a row of discontinued items in a popular store. Not once have I ever chosen something from that aisle but it doesn’t stop me from believing that one day I will happen upon a bargain I can’t pass up.

A guy excused himself as he moved out of my way. I think he was being polite or maybe he didn’t trust me to avoid bumping him with the cart. I told him he wasn’t in my way, I was just wandering.

Wandering is akin to piddling except that piddling accomplishes something, while wandering seldom does. Wandering in a store enables stray plants to hop into a slow moving cart, along with the occasional odds and ends. Mostly, wandering is a mini vacation from all the things I should be doing.

Slowly pushing a shopping cart allows me to people watch and realize that I am impeding the normal traffic flow. So many people are in such a big hurry; I wonder if any of them ever wander. I dodge their carts as they speed by me, and try to stay out of the way.

Sometimes I wander around my backyard. The trees on the property line reach out and envelope me in their leafy arms. Even the dead tree that we keep intending to have removed seems to belong there. Wandering in the backyard is often combined with piddling as fallen branches and twigs are relocated to the vicinity of the compost pile.

The dictionary definition of wander is to “move about without a fixed course, aim, or goal” and does not exclude accomplishing a few small things. Strolling aimlessly through a store allows me to take inventory of what products have been moved or are about to be discontinued.

When I am wandering through the yard I am making a mental list of all that needs to be done as in, this needs to be trimmed, oops, there is a thistle, and that celosia needs to be propped up until it grows enough roots to keep it upright. I silently grumble that I just weeded that space and thanks to the rain and heat it needs it again.

 I love wandering through the yard after a rain. Everything is clean and crisp. Sometimes there are puddles in the yard, other times it has rained hard enough to create a small lake. Being able to go wading without leaving home is a rare treat. Plus it is too muddy to do actual work.

The benefits of wandering are many. This is not a researched, scientific fact but merely my own observation. Wanderers concentrate on the little things. The heart rate slows, calmness replaces anxiety as one concentrates on what is instead of what might be. The here and now becomes the focus of attention. All the ugliness of politics, violence, and injustice can be dealt with some other time.

I truly believe that we all need to slow down. We tend to over-schedule ourselves so that it becomes almost impossible to accomplish all we set out to do. Just a few minutes of wandering aimlessly can rejuvenate us, or at least it does for me.

“Not all those who wander are lost,” some of them are taking a much needed break from their to-do lists that are longer than the typical CVS receipt. Then again, maybe some of us are lost. Only time will tell.