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
Disclaimer: Please don't hate me, please don't stop reading, I know I just quoted Tolkien but I am not a huge fan. Nor have I seen the movies or really read the book. I just really enjoy this quote. I am lacking in the SciFi nerdty. It is something I struggle with every day. :) Thank you.The more I think about it, the more I realize that in the time-honored tradition of my ancestors... I am a wanderer. My people wandered all over the land from Cannan to Egypt to Israel to Jordan to Babylonia to (more recently) the Ukraine/Germany/Poland/Russia then (rather remarkably, actually) to England before wandering to the US of A. Once here, we didn't stop wandering... NYC, Rhode Island, Cincinnati, Champagne-Urbana, Florida, Los Angeles, Boulder, Denver... we have wandered all over.It used to be that I could pack pretty much all of my life into my 1997 Honda Civic. I mean you couldn't see out the windows but it all fit... even had a spot for my little hamster & his cage by the window back when he was my traveling companion. With the advent of social media I could be in touch with the friends I made over the years in any location I was in. People laugh at me now when they see I have nearly 1400 friends on Facebook. Surely you don't know all of them, they say. But that isn't true. I don't accept requests from people I haven't met in person. These are friends I have collected over the years during my time in different locations. Friends from JCC pre-school in White Plains, from Kindergarten in Illinois, from elementary school in one of the three elementary schools I went to, from Gifford Middle 6 or 7 or high school in Vero Beach, from Jewish camp in Georgia, from a semester in Israel in high school, from youth groups and theatre groups, from cheerleading, from college in Jacksonville, from working for Target in Colorado, from Gamma Phi Beta conventions, from acting in LA and London, from my relationship with Chabad all over the world, from grad school in Denver, from hanging with the Jews in Denver, from spending a semester in Israel again... this time as an adult... I am so used to packing the bags and moving on... but what if I want to stay where I am? What if I enjoy living somewhere and am sick of moving? Is that betraying my wandering ancestry?No, I don't think so. I've lived a long 30 years and I am happy to settle into a place that I find beautiful and enjoyable to live. Wandering has its benefits. I have experienced some AMAZING things in my life but it also has its drawbacks. There is never a childhood home to go to. I don't have deep friendships with that one group of people that I have known since I was born.I didn't wander because I was lost, I wandered because that was written in my DNA. Just as being a maggid, a storyteller is in my DNA. I am proud of that heritage and I am proud that I can recognize and appreciate it and still enjoy settling down.As Jews we have found ourselves settling into life many times. Sometimes in Eretz Yisrael (the land of Israel) and sometimes in Chutz l'Aretz ('the other lands' aka the diaspora). I think our periods of settlement, of non-wandering, is our time to recharge the batteries. Wandering sure takes a lot out of a person! This week's Torah portion is Bechukotai where G-d promises us the land of Israel but where G-d also warns us that we will stuffer from exile and problems if we forget our way. Maybe that is what wandering is... looking for the way, a way, one that perhaps we already know internally but we need to find the right place for us to live it. And sometimes that changes... and our location changes too.Perhaps this blog is wandering a bit but I guess my point is... don't judge anything. Not only is that not our place but also... all gold doesn't glitter... just because they wander, doesn't make them lost. Our Judaism has deep roots that won't wither... unless we forcibly expose them to the elements and forget to care for them. And sometimes, from the ashes of a decision or relationship or tragedy, a fire is rekindled or 'woken' (as Tolkien says... though I am not sure that word is correct... but it could be my Sunday brain).