My Old Man

My old man had a rounder's soul.
He'd hear an old freight train, then he'd have to go.
Said he'd been blessed with a gypsy bone.
That's the reason I guess he'd been cursed to roam.
Came into town back before the war.
Didn't even know what it was he was looking for.
--John Denver

This is for my Baby Girl. It's a beautiful ballad. I wish I could find a better quality version of it online for you. I listen to your plans, your impatience with people, your desire to be doing things. I see your hunger for what is out there, sometimes not even knowing what it is you want. I know the feeling. There's a passage in one of the Little House books...

There came a night when the moonlight shone silver clear. The earth was endless white and the wind was still. Beyond every window the white world stretched far away in frosty glitter, and the sky was a curve of light. Laura could not settle down to anything. She didn't want to play games. She hardly heard even the music of Pa's fiddle. She did not want to dance, but she felt that she must move swiftly. She must be going somewhere.... [and once she went outside] ...Laura's heart swelled. She felt herself a part of the wide land, of the far deep sky and the brilliant moonlight. She wanted to fly.

It's called wanderlust. It's a blessing and a curse. It's what makes people want to travel, it's what drives them to seek new horizons even when they're staying put. It makes you successful, and it keeps you awake at night because you know there are roads calling to you. It's what called to you at Tara and it's what is calling to you right now. Your great-grandmother had it. Your mother has it. You have it. It runs deep in your genes. Not everyone has it--some people are content to just be. No one explained it to me. It took me years to figure it out and come to terms with it. Now I am learning the lessons of patience and empathy and living in the moment. Things I was always too impatient to pay attention to before.

My hope for you is that early on you can harness the energy of your wanderlust and couple it with the lessons of the moment--however insignificant they seem. If you have both, you will do amazing things. I am sure of it.