We made it!
With a song in our heart and a whole lot of giggles we arrived safely to our POD.
Tenderly, as we drove those many miles, excerpts from an old Walt Whitman poem danced playfully through my heart and my head.
Song of the Open Road
(Excerpts)
BY WALT WHITMAN
1
Afoot and light-hearted I take to the open road,
Healthy, free, the world before me,
The long brown path before me leading wherever I choose.
Henceforth I ask not good-fortune, I myself am good-fortune,
Henceforth I whimper no more, postpone no more, need nothing,
Done with indoor complaints, libraries, querulous criticisms,
Strong and content I travel the open road.
2
You road I enter upon and look around, I believe you are not all that is here,
I believe that much unseen is also here.
3
You air that serves me with breath to speak!
You objects that call from diffusion my meanings and give them shape!
You light that wraps me and all things in delicate equable showers!
You paths worn in the irregular hollows by the roadsides!
I believe you are latent with unseen existences, you are so dear to me.
4
The earth expanding right hand and left hand,
The picture alive, every part in its best light,
The music falling in where it is wanted, and stopping where it is not wanted,
The cheerful voice of the public road, the gay fresh sentiment of the road.
O highway I travel, do you say to me Do not leave me?
Do you say Venture not—if you leave me you are lost?
Do you say I am already prepared, I am well-beaten and undenied, adhere to me?
O public road, I say back I am not afraid to leave you, yet I love you,
You express me better than I can express myself,
You shall be more to me than my poem.
I think heroic deeds were all conceiv’d in the open air, and all free poems also,
I think I could stop here myself and do miracles,
I think whatever I shall meet on the road I shall like, and whoever beholds me shall like me,
I think whoever I see must be happy.
Indeed, happy are we three as we head out on this grand-adventure!
And I do hope YOU will sing-along with us as we continue with so much more yet to see…
“I give you my love more precious than money
I give you myself before preaching or law;
will you give me yourself?
will you come travel with me?
shall we stick by each other as long as we live?”
Walt Whitman
What is most precious to you today?
hugs n’ blessings for the joy-filled songs in our traveling hearts.
