Not All Who Wander Are Lost

If I had a nickel for every time I've been asked "Just you?" or "Are you lost?" or "When are you going to settle down and stay in one place?" I would be a very rich woman today. Yes, folks, just me. Just one for the table. Just one for the boat ride. Just one booking in. Just one for that dance class, that ghost tour, that doctoral program. I'll be paying, and if you treat me right, I'm a great tipper. No, I don't want a table in a dark corner by the bathroom, thanks, put me right out front. No, I did not bring a friend to eat with, or dance with. Would you like to eat or dance with me? No, I had no problem embarking on, and succeeding in, another career in my 40's. I am not lonely, and I am not confused. I am wandering, and I am not lost.

Being a solitary traveler, especially a female one, will teach you many interesting lessons you will never learn sitting home at Windy Corner pining for a more interesting life. This past weekend, it taught me to cherish and indulge that streak in myself that for as long as I can remember has made me nothing but tail lights with a very worried mother. At the very beautiful and delightful Inn at 909 Lincoln in Savannah, I met three of the most fantastic women I have met in a long time. I now convinced that meeting them, and the 3-hour breakfasts we enjoyed together, was the ultimate purpose I made the trip. Brilliant, talented, with fascinating histories, careers and stories to tell, each of them inspired me, and made me feel right at home, which is not a feeling I have very often. It's funny how you can feel more at home sometimes with people you have just met than with people you have known a long time, if you share similar histories and viewpoints. Thank god we find each other in B and B's. Usually, we own them.

One of the most interesting points to come out of our conversation was this: Why do we all get so many damn questions about traveling alone, taking up new activities, embarking on a new career path or tweaking an old one to make it more satisfying? Why is it considered so sketchy or questionable to do many different things in life, live in many towns, have many different jobs and things you are good at (or at least enjoy) doing? There we sat, four successful forty-somethings, trying to figure it out.

My own viewpoint has always been this: Whatever I have done in life, wherever I have been, whomever I have met, has made me who I am in this moment. Shit happens, and from shit comes growth. Growth happens. I made a different decision because I learned something new. I was inspired, moved, and then I grew a pair and pointed 'em forward and made something new, something better, happen. So did these three wonderful women, whom I so briefly met and yet will always remember. Not all who wander are lost. We know exactly where we are, and where we are is a very happy place.