As they sang, the hobbit felt the love of beautiful things made by hands and by cunning and by magic moving through him, a fierce and jealous love, the desire of the hearts of dwarves. Then something Tookish woke up inside him, and he wished to go and see the great mountains, and hear the pine-trees and the waterfalls and explore the caves, and wear a sword instead of a walking-stick.

The Hobbit, J.R.R Tolkien

Something about the arrival of fall weather—that crisp taste to the air, that rush of cool wind when I open the door, and the crunch of leaves beneath my feet—never fails to awaken my longing for adventure. I wish to take to the hills with nothing more than the pack on my back and a stout walking stick in my hand. To explore. To live. And to dream of great things beneath the stars.

He [Frodo] found himself wondering at times, especially in the autumn, about the wild lands, and strange visions of mountains that he had never seen came into his dreams.

The Fellowship of the Ring, J.R.R Tolkien

The fall awakens my Tookish side.

And like Bilbo, and Frodo after him, I am suddenly ready to forsake the comfort of my home and seek adventure on the wide Road. The dangerous, glorious, enthralling expanse of the wide road. With the arrival of fall, I am ready to be swept off my feet, drawn into the wild, and left to wander.

Wanderlust, I think it is called.

He [Bilbo] used often to say that there was only one Road; that it was like a great river: its springs were at every doorstep, and every path was its tributary. “It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out of your door,” he used to say. “You step into the Road, and if you won’t keep your feet, there is no knowing where you might be swept off to.

The Fellowship of the Ring, J.R.R Tolkien

The world we live in is such a busy one. We are constantly on the move. Constantly driven to keep up, to press ahead, to accomplish more. And when we are not working, there is the siren call of entertainment to lure us to our couches.

I am meant to be doing. Inaction does not sit well with my soul. But I think there is also a need for a time of rest. For peace and quiet. For stillness and calm. And there is a time when doing can just as well be served by hiking as crossing the next item off the to-do list.

Fall is coming.

Even now I feel that itch of restlessness stirring inside me as the leaves begin to change and fall to carpet the forest floor. And if I should suddenly disappear for a period of time, doubtless it is because the Road has lured me into its grasp and I do not know where I shall surface …

“Ye ready, lass?” Amos hefted the larger of the two packs and slung it over one shoulder. He took a deep breath, puffing out his chest. “We’ve supplies aplenty, the wind at our backs, an’ the open road before our feet. What more could a man wish for?”

Orphan’s Song, Gillian Bronte Adams

Does the fall awaken your Tookish side? If you could go wandering, where would your feet take you? To the mountains? The forest? The wide open spaces? The shores of the sea?