While watching, "The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship", a scene caught my attention and I found my mind wandering about the significance of it. It's near the beginning of the film when Sam and Frodo are leaving the Shire. They are walking and Sam suddenly stops. Frodo walks a bit further, stops, turns, and asks Sam "What is the matter"? Sam looks about uncertainly, a bit of fear in his eyes; and a bit of curiosity. Then he tells Frodo, "One more step and it will be the furthest I have ever been from the Shire".
Yes, the little hobbit would be the farthest he had ever been from home. So much in that statement. So much in Sam's mind. So much in my own mind. I don't remember the furthest I had been from home. I was only 3 years old. My parents had been told by my doctor to take me to a warmer climate for I may not survive the winter. My health had always been precarious, but this time it was making demands that the cold winter had made upon it that my small body could not handle. My parents sold our cows and such, packed my sister, brother, and myself up and off we went to Florida.
Obviously, I survived and became a healthy individual; but now, the pain from joints, and back make life hard at times. However, health and pain is not what I am thinking of. No, instead, I think of how that step being the furthest from one's home is filled with so many emotions. Fear, trepidation, speculation, happiness, courage, and hunger flit through one's mind at that moment. There have been some who have been unable to take that step, they turn back and flee to the place where they are safe and comfortable. There are others who take the step. They push out for a bit, explore; maybe even remain away for years; then they too, return to the place of their earlier lives. Maybe they wish to find the peace and comfort they had before they took the step. Maybe they discovered they already had before what they had been looking for. Who knows? There are so many variables at play with this which one can never really understand for it is dependent upon the individual to make this decision and for the rest of us to accept it.
Then there are those who take the step and move completely away from home. They search for whatever it is which grabbed hold of them, following the dream which has spread it's wings before them. They find a new life filled with their dreams and goals, of journeys, and quests, and fulfillment or loss. Actually, all do this. When we reach a certain stage, we take that step. It doesn't matter if we turn back, go forth and return, or leave forever. We take the step and live what is brought before us. We face the trials, the hardships, the loves, the joys, and the hopes wherever we are. No, it's not just those who leave, but also those who stay. The step is always there and we take it in whatever way we decide. The variables are what makes our individual edicts and these are always in flux, a constant motion rather than an inflexible unchanging straight line.
Sam took the step, he went forth, he journeyed, he fought, he survived, then he returned home. Yet, he had changed. He had found confidence and a strength he had never realized before. He came home. Frodo, came home as well, but he was changed in a different way. He was different. No longer the naive loving hobbit. He had suffered in ways which Sam had not. Frodo survived, but he no longer belonged to the Shire. In the end he leaves, going away never to return for he had grown away from the comforts and binds of his home. If one reads the books of "The Lord of the Rings" you find out that Merry and Pippen leave the Shire as well. They too had been touched and suffered. They too, no longer felt the links of commonality and home; they too, would leave and join with Frodo, in a new place beyond the sea of known to that of a different land which they would find and grow in.
Yes, my mind has wandered over this and I have come full circle. Go ahead, take a step, it's there at any age and every moment of your life. Just remember to be yourself and you will discover there is more to you than others think for it is your variables which determine your own path in the journey called life.
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