"Wild Goose, Brother Goose, ...

...which is best? A wandering foot, or a heart at rest?"

Even from childhood, I had the urge to wander -- to see faraway places about which I read in books, or saw in the movies.  I dreamed of going all over the world, and my 'I want-to-go-there' list included well known and often visited places as well as those explored by only a few or, perhaps, existing only in fiction.

My earliest remembered wishful destination, -- when I was about 8 years old -- was brought on by reading a multi-volume world fairy tales collection housed in the children's section of the Albuquerque Public Library.  I wanted to go into the deep forests of Russia, to seek out the witch Baba Yaga who traveled through the trees in a hut which strode about on chicken legs.  How cool is that!?

Reading Young Fu of the Upper Yangtze* made me yearn to visit China.  The Trumpeter of Krakow* (the first book I ever read that was shelved in the 'bigger' folks area, although I was still under 10 years of age), created vivid mental pictures of the Late Middle Ages.  Although I didn't realize it at the time, I was longing for the ability to travel through time.  * Note: both these volumes were Newbery Medal winners. I was steered, early on, into good literature by the watchful librarians.

In later years, I became fascinated by stories from Egyptian history, both fact and fiction. I longed to float down the River Nile and explore the pyramids and the tombs of the Pharoahs.  Thor Heyerdahl's Kon Tiki made me dream of drifting westward with the Pacific Ocean currents from the coast of Peru to Easter Island,  and beyond. John Master's riveting tales of India set during the 1820's, The Deceivers and The Nightrunners of Bengal, chilled my blood and yet made me wish to be able to visit that mysterious and dangerous continent.  [Note: now that my granddaughter has a husband from India, and they travel there with their children to visit his family, I'm not so sure I would want to go... too many mental images from those old books. Of course, it's not like that, these days, but a dangerous place for the uninitiated, none the less.]

I've been fortunate enough to do a little bit of 'world-wandering' although my travels didn't start until I was in my 40's.  I still have a long held wish to visit New Zealand and Australia and, perhaps I shall yet do it, but my chances are getting slimmer by the year.

I leave you with this video of the song that encapsulates all my 'wandering' dreams.

I'm away, now, to read some fairy tales from around the world that were no-cost downloads to my Kindle.

Tomorrow is also a day.