Day 94 and 95: Adventures in the Backwoods

The weekend of Days 94 and 95 saw my adventures continuing on a nearby mountain in Alabama. My college organized a weekend retreat for the sophomore class. So when Saturday morning rolled around I found myself packed into a van like sardines with fifteen other students off on a road trip.

When our van finally pulled into the camp we were staying at, I was thoroughly tired and my voice was sore from the amount of singing that had occurred over the course of our journey. The camp was a beautiful and rustic affair in the backwoods of Alabama. The cabins were comfortable and based off of a cross between modern amenities, 19^th century construction, and rustic aesthetics.

Almost as soon as I was unpacked and had met the other girls I would be sharing a cabin with, I was off into the woods. There were trees to climb, boulders to scale, trails to follow, wildlife to chase, and pictures to take. Several of the girls in my cabin accompanied me and we thoroughly explored as much as we could before dark set in.

The next day passed in similar fashion. The woods sprawled before us and we picked a trail going west into the heart of the mountains and set out. Through our journey we explored old cabins, climbed several rock faces, catalogued fungi, sang hobbit walking songs, and walked into a good number of spider webs. The change of scenery was wonderful, and exploring a new mountain with friends made the journey even more enjoyable. I was quite sad when the afternoon rolled around and it was time to leave for college again.

The Road Goes Ever On and On,
~ Daisy Buttons

Day 93: Living on the Outskirts

College brings with it a menagerie of experiences. One of the most unique and distinct instances in this menagerie is social life. Since college in America usually consists of a number of students and young adults living and learning together in close quarters, it tends to breed friendships and a high demand for sociality.

My life has not gone untouched by this demand as I make my way through the often perilous journey. With the high pressure academics as well as tests and papers around every corner, social life plays an important role in managing the stress which accompanies college. Though I often hide from it, my social life has given me many blessings and important life lessons.

However, my life is one that I have always lived on the outskirts. This distinction is important in understanding who I am. When I am the gawker looking in on the fishbowl of life, my personality and identity are necessarily formed around that. Living on the outskirts, only passively interacting in life and attempting to quell feelings of incompetency, has led me to treasure many aspects of life as a whole. I have learned to treasure my friends, my family, my position in the world, and above all, my mere existence. God has been gracious enough to let me live and I have learned much from the outskirts of that life. There is still much more to learn, so much more. I doubt if I could live forever on this earth that I shall ever learn enough, or obtain even a small amount of wisdom.

This conclusion came to me one evening as I found myself halfway up a tree observing student life in full swing. I often do my best thinking in trees, it’s become somewhat of an awkward habit. In life I have found that people rarely look up, so trees are an excellent place to perch if you wish to be alone when surrounded by people. So tonight I found myself sitting securely in a tree, watching unseen as the lives of the student body carried on below me.

The Road Goes Ever On and On,
~ Daisy Buttons

Day 86: Fog on the Mountain

The last two days have seen mist and fog descend on the mountain. Once again visibility is down to 30 feet. However, our spirits are not yet dampened, even if our clothes are. Early morning sees me donning rain boots, clipping an umbrella onto my bag, and snuggling into my cloak as I prepare for the day. Squelching through the grass and splashing through puddles is quite common as the student body hurries off to class.

The weather has refrained from all out rain, preferring to keep misting gently and covering everything with dewy droplets of moisture. My professors have donned their rain slickers and hats, looking even more intimidating as they appear suddenly from the gloom only to disappear again without a word.

My walk on Day 86 was ethereal, surrounded by clouds as I trudged along muddied mountain trails. There is something about fog that is both magical and confining, giving you your own little world but holding you captive from the rest of the world. I know that somewhere below my campus lies civilization, a city sprawling across a valley, but I cannot see it, I am not daily reminded of its presence. So for a little while I can entertain the thought of being in the Shire on foggy days, of padding home to a good fire, a strong cup of tea, and a hearty meal. For a little while, I can pretend I’m a real hobbit in my cloak as I twirl around in the mist alone.

Many people here do not like the fog; it obscures the sun and gives an air of gloom. I have become quite fond of it for it gives my imagination many things to play with and it fills me with wonder. In the early morning sometimes I get up early enough to watch the fog roll up the mountains to the west before finally descending on the college. I can watch the fog swallow up familiar mountain ranges before it gently blankets me in my world.  Living in the clouds has become something I look forward to.

The Road Goes Ever On and On
~Daisy Buttons

Day 85: A Comedy of Errors

Day 85 started later than usual. Oversleeping my alarm by half an hour started a day fraught with lateness. I was late to every class and missed several meals as a result. All around me the campus seemed to be late as well, or maybe I was just starting to notice the late arrivals. Running to class and work is a pastime shared by several dozen students on the mountain. Briefly acknowledging each other, we sprint in opposite directions, our bags bouncing off our backs, and our breaths coming out harsh as we dash to make it to class before the professor starts into his lecture.

The routine started to get a bit ridiculous when the evening rolled around and I had not made it on time to anything. As I walked briskly to work, having no desire to run again, I was stopped by a friend. In exasperation at the delay I did the first thing that came to mind, I quoted Alice in Wonderland. “I’m late! I’m late! For a very important date! No time to say hello, goodbye! I’m late! I’m late! I’m late!” was hollered over my shoulder as I kept going.

Work finally ended and I had a few minutes to grab something to eat before I had to be at my study group. Of course the line through the dining hall was absurdly long and left me with enough time to grab an apple before dashing off again. Determined to be on time to one thing that day, I decided to take a short cut through one of the buildings. Everything was going well until I tripped on the staircase and spilled the contents of my bag, books, paper, and writing utensils clattering to the ground and falling down another flight of stairs. By the time I managed to round up everything that had spilled, I was over ten minutes late to group. Tolkien was wise when he wrote “shortcuts make for long delays.”

By the time the day was through I had completely missed my scheduled walking time and the sun had long set. Having no desire to push my luck by walking at night without my headlamp, I decided to call the day a comedy of errors and promptly went to bed.

Even with their considerable trials, I have yet to find a place where there was a comedy of errors for the hobbits. There is certainly much hardship to face and many things go wrong, but there doesn’t seem to be concrete point when things just keep going wrong one after another. Bleak and seemingly hopeless points can be found throughout the story, but there are also moments of hope between these instances of trial. I guess that is one of the reasons I have always loved the Lord of the Rings, it is a book that inspires hope when none can be found. Thankfully my day went comically wrong, and not tragically wrong. There is still much hope that tomorrow will be better.

The Road Goes Ever On and On,
~Daisy Buttons

Day 83: Happy Hobbit Day!

Sunday morning dawned early as usual and found me safely tucked away in bed. For once, I would not move until sometime around noon, enjoying the day to sleep in after a long night of good cheer with deer friends.

When I finally did rouse, it was to the smell of pancakes and the realization that it was hobbit day, otherwise known as Bilbo and Frodo’s birthday. Though I had plans to acknowledge the day with some friends, I instead found myself alone. So I did the only thing I could do on hobbit day, bake lots of food and spread merriment in my own special way.

After my food was cooked and a good drink put together, I retreated to my room to read the collection of Tolkien which I keep at college. Though I didn’t get a chance to go for my walk today, I was quite happy with my good food and wonderful books. This hobbit day I took the opportunity to go back through Tolkien’s essay “On Fairy Stories.” This essay is one of my favourite works by him and I have the blessing of owning a first edition of it (contained in Tree and Leaf). Escapism, one of the themes of the essay, is a theme I often return to throughout my day-to-day life. For me, the escape of the imagination has pervaded my entire life and through it I have not only built a haven to retreat to, but I have also built the skills needed to keep trudging through life. Though I won’t attribute my imagination to Tolkien, he is credited with helping to expand it and giving me a world with which to live in.

The Road Goes Ever On and On,
~Daisy Buttons 

Day 82: On My Way

As I draw closer to Rivendell I am beginning to get antsy with the remaining miles, wishing that I could fast forward to finally reaching the Last Homely House. At 405.99 miles (653.4 km) I have a little over 50 miles (80.5 km) to go.

Tolkien doesn’t talk much about the days spent travelling to Rivendell, glancing over large sections of travelling to highlight key points in the trip. I have always wondered what the day in and day out of the travelling looked like. Another part of me curses ever wanting to find out since I am now living it. Walking every day is starting to get tiresome, with very few milestones to pass and only several pages of reading devoted to a stretch of 200 some odd miles, I am left with very little to contemplate and a long way to walk.

Enter the title of my post. I’m sure you’ve seen the movies where actions over an extended period of time are condensed down into a montage of snapshots lasting a few minutes. The movie adaptations of Lord of the Rings made good use of travel montages with helicopter panorama shots of the fellowship trekking across beautiful and difficult terrain. I could really use one of those right now, condensing the 200 miles I had to walk into a manageable two minutes of the ridiculous moments (including my flight from a cloud of midges). Send Me On My Way by Rusted Root is a song used in several movies (I’m thinking of Matilda and Ice Age here) for these montages. I periodically play this song as I go, putting together my own montage in my head of my journey so far. Imagining panorama shots of me scaling my mountain trails, trudging through city streets, boulder hopping over a river, shivering in the rain, slipping in mud, running from clouds of bugs, singing ridiculous songs, stopping to take in stunning views, and generally being ridiculous, helps to keep me going on my way to Rivendell. One day, hopefully soon, I will get there and look back on this post with an indulgent smile. But that day is not today. Today I continue on my way.

The Road Goes Ever ON and ON
~Daisy Buttons

Day 80: Inadequate

It has been awhile since I last updated and now I am quite behind (three months to be exact). The journey has continued despite my lack of posting and I am hoping to catch up with this blog over the Christmas break around the corner. Now, on with my adventure!

Day 80 brought with it a feeling I’m not entirely unfamiliar with: inadequacy. Don’t get me wrong, I feel that self-esteem is overrated in modern culture and don’t strive to look for affirmation within my everyday life, but for some reason I awoke with the woeful feeling of being small and insignificant. I felt like I was standing alone back home underneath the full heavens with its many and mighty stars and yelling “I’m important!” only to be answered with silence. The transience of my life is something that I have contemplated quite a lot throughout my life. The knowledge that my life will pass in history like a warm breath on a winter wind can be depressing. I know that I will leave little to attest to the fact that I once indeed did live. My thoughts, troubles, and triumphs – while seemingly significant to me – will be but a drop in the ocean of life. Confronted with thoughts such as these, I am rarely surprised that I feel inadequate.

I’ve wondered if the hobbits ever felt inadequate. Certainly they must have, faced with such evil and the destruction of their world. Yet the hobbits, the most insignificant creatures were the ones who in the end saved their world. It was through their actions that an evil was destroyed.

As I go through life I am often reminded of Galadriel’s words, “Even the smallest person can change the course of the future.” So when I’m back in that field with the stars mockingly overhead I know that I may be small and insignificant in comparison, but there is a reason I am alive, there is a reason God put me here in this time and place. I have yet to figure out that reason and doubt I ever will, but knowing there is a reason is enough to continue life with a purpose. There will often be feelings of inadequacy as I continue my journey, but there are often small moments of insight when I am still long enough to realize the life I have been blessed with.

The Road Goes Ever On and On,
~ Daisy Buttons