...They are that that talks of going,
But never gets away;

And that talks no less for knowing,

As it grows wiser and older,

That now it means to stay....

"The Sound of Trees" by Robert Frost

Admittedly, I love Robert Frost's work.  His better known works, "Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening" and "The Road Not Taken" are hallmarks of American literature.  At times, he seems fully optimistic, and at other times, he sounds like an pessimistic atheist.  It's his ambiguity that leaves me wondering.  

In "The Sound of Trees," he wonders why we like watching trees so much.  Picture it...a tree moves all day long, yet goes absolutely nowhere.  It's like being on a treadmill.  Sure, you get your miles in, but you haven't gone anywhere.  Metaphorically, this is most of us, I'm afraid.  What if we talk about what we want to do, and plan what we want to do, and dream about what we want to do....but never do it???  

I recently went to Spain.  I'd never been "across the pond" and I was excited to go.  The purpose was to hike El Camino de Santiago.  El Camino (the Way) is a pilgrimage route in the Catholic church that spans northern Spain from St. Jean Pied de Port, France on the east end to Santiago on the west end, and though I'm not Catholic, my walk had a spiritual purpose.  One thing that kept coming up in my mind as I walked was this:

"Why did I wait until I was 45 to do this???"  

I guess there are many reasons, and none of them matter, because I can't go back and change things or undo things.  The point I'm trying to make is this: I plan things all the time and never follow through with them.  Why??  Is something keeping me from going?? Actually there is, and it is me! No one is stopping me, except for me.  

Sadly, looking back, I recall several examples of this concept.

 I started my doctorate when Grant was five.  The twins were yet to be. I grew tired of telling Grant "not now, I'm typing a paper," so I quit after one summer.  That was eleven years ago.  I intended to finish my PhD at some point, but that point hasn't arrived yet.  

A couple years after my divorce, I remembered how much I used to love playing the trumpet.  And so I decided that I wanted to see if I had what it took to audition for and be selected to play in a professional orchestra.  In 2013, I auditioned for the Pensacola Symphony.  It took 10 months for them to call me about playing.  It was awesome.  I got to play Tchaik's famous "1812 Overture" on that concert, and right before the downbeat, I wondered why I waited until I was 41 to do this???   I had talked about it for years...but I never did it.   History repeats itself.  

I suspect I'm not alone in this.  I hear it all the time from family,  friends,  and colleagues.  One of these day, I'm going to.....

In the 1800s, a movement known as Romanticism swept western civilization.  Romanticism doesn't mean what it sounds like.  It's not candle-lit dinners on Valentine's Day, though that's part of it.  At the root of Romanticism is the idea of possibility over reality.  Romanticism drives us.  In religion, we might call it "hope."  It's the Romantic in us that makes us want what we don't have. This is not entirely a bad thing, so long as we know how to control our desires.  But it is Romanticism that makes us make plans.  And it is the predecessor of Romanticism,  Classicism, that says "no, that won't work, just forget it."  We are constantly listening to one or the other of those urges, and probably both at the same time.  In a nutshell, we want what we don't have, and it's amazing to me that wanting something is often more fulfilling than having it.  But every now and then, we go get what we want, such as walking across northern Spain, or finally finishing a degree, or getting up the courage to do whatever it is that scares the #%%&#* out of us...and those moments are nothing short of life-changing.

So....what's on your list?  What do you want to achieve?  Why haven't you???