THE WANDERER

April 30, 2013


Vagabond Journey No. 1,995



Have no fear of moving into the unknown.

(Pope John Paul II)

*************************

Hello Lily

***************************

I'm a pilgrim, and I'm a stranger;

I can tarry, I can tarry but a night.

Do not detain me, for I am going

To where the fountains are ever flowing;



There the glory is ever shining;

O, my longing heart, my longing heart is there.

Here in this country so dark and dreary,

I long have wandered forlorn and weary:

(Mary Shindler)



Many of the years of my vagabond life I moved, not to go somewhere but to get away from where I was,. It wasn't that I was dissatisfied with where I was but I knew in my heart that it was only temporary. That is a result of my youth when I had to keep moving for financial reasons. There are no roots. I never learned what a home is.



It is the same with people. I have no friends from my boyhood or teen age years. My only friend left over from my 20's is Charles, but even with him we were out of contact with each other for about 25 years. I have no friends in this dreary town. I wrote somewhere that I've lost more friends than I ever had. I have managed, in one way or another, to alienate a few of the friends I had. Some have turned cold before they ever became friends. I have moved away from some, others have moved away from me.



So why am I adrift, forlorn and weary, solitary in my ways, apt to pick up and disappear down some road to shining fountains that I think must be there, somewhere? I don't know where they are or where I'm going. I can only say in general where I will stop, if I ever do. There will be space and water, water with waves. I wish to own a tree, and a cat to climb it, and a dog to watch the cat climbing, and young people, and a commerce of ideas.



I can visualize such a place, but can I visualize remaining there? Wherever I am it seems that in my heart I am still a pilgrim and a stranger. A wanderer. A vagabond.

*****************************

Dana Bate

Vagabond Journeys

Never Give Up

******************************