It was the 3rd of September, 1994. I was standing on a dock in Guam. In the darkness of a cool dawn, a suitcase at my feet, I was watching the largest sailing vessel in the world, which I had called home for a year, depart slowly for Saipan. Without me. A piece of my heart was sailing away, too, and I was so worried that I might have made the wrong decision.

Leaving is easy. Leaving for the right reasons seems a little harder. And now, over ten years later, I’m leaving again. There is no doubt in my mind, this time. I have made the right choice. A choice that will be heavy with consequences, but unavoidably logical. My time has come. I have exhausted the rewards of being here, and I need those of being there instead. Except I still don’t know where there will be. I only know that whatever I’m looking for, it is unlikely to present itself in Little Cayman.

As Harrison Ford says it so well in « Six Days, Seven Nights »,

It’s an island, babe. If you didn’t bring it here, you won’t find it here.

So let’s embark on a new adventure, carefully yet carelessly...

It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out of your door,«  he used to say.  »You step into the Road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there is no knowing where you might be swept off to.

And

The Road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with eager feet,
Until it joins some larger way
Where many paths and errands meet.
And whither then? I cannot say.
The Road goes ever on and on
Out from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
Let others follow it who can!
Let them a journey new begin,
But I at last with eager feet
Will turn towards the lighted inn,
My evening-rest and sleep to meet.

J R R Tolkien

2005-02-23 16:11 • Posted in Quotes: