All That Is Gold Does Not Glitter

I found this poem when I read Lord of the Rings, but I didn't appreciate it until I was looking for cross stitch ideas and came across lovely ones of the line, Not all those who wander are lost.

Tolkein was incredibly profound, and such a clever man and author, I can only hope to reach his intelligence one day and lose myself in a story world of such magnitude and meaning that people devote their lives to it years down the line. The biblical overtones as well are fantastic, and thought provoking. I've spent the last two days wandering around with the phrase, 'not all those who wander are lost' stuck in my head, thinking about all the ways it could be construed! I'm such a lit geek!

Anyway, this photo is my own writing, the first part of the Riddle of Strider, first in Elvish, then in English (because my geekiness knows no bounds - and it's the summer holidays and I was bored and arty!). I'm considering a cross stitch of the elvish to put in a frame, but I'll need to work on the typography, because mine is useless!

But something to remember, not all those who wander are lost: we are all wanderers in life, and (some of the time anyway) we might not feel lost. I have a purpose in God, but to others I might seem wayward and lost in a world far too big for me to handle. Jesus himself was called a wanderer, even He himself said he had nowhere to rest his head. Yet there was no doubt that his purpose and sense of direction couldn't be clearer. I guess that's a little bit of what's been going through my head. Kind of uplifting, really.

Plus, it appeals to my nerdy side, LOTR all the way!