Happy Birthday, Bilbo Baggins

Roads go ever ever on,

Over rock and under tree,

By caves where never sun has shone,

By streams that never find the sea;

Over snow by winter sown,

And through the merry flowers of June,

Over grass and over stone,

And under mountains in the moon.

Roads go ever ever on

Under cloud and under star,

Yet feet that wandering have gone

Turn at last to home afar.

Eyes that fire and sword have seen

And horror in the halls of stone

Look at last on meadows green

And trees and hills they long have known.

~~~

Bilbo Baggins was the first long-term traveler I ever met. He was introduced to me when I was so young that I grew up with the familiarity you feel to someone who has been friends with your parents long before you were born. About once a year, Dad read us four kids The Hobbit, and he finally recorded the entire book on six cassette tapes, which we listened to in the van on our yearly vacation to visit my grandparents in North Carolina. It was one of my favorite parts of the trip. Listening to the hobbit’s adventures from the Shire to the Lonely Mountain and back always stirred something in me— a longing, a sense of adventure. Listening to Dad read Lord of the Rings every year did nothing to ease that wanderlust that rolled around every autumn.

A few days ago, I was staring out the window at a gray sky and seeing the hints of yellow in the leaves and feeling a rush of cool breeze through the screen, and I wanted to visit Oregon so badly that I felt like I would die. That sudden stirring of emotions, the sudden intense desire to travel, visits me each year as surely as the autumn leaves. It’s a trait I inherited from Bilbo. It has given me the courage to wander from my home in search of nothing but adventure, and it has emboldened me to come home and encourage others to let the Road sweep them away.

Happy Birthday, Bilbo Baggins. You’ll always be an inspiration to me.

~~~