I love walking outdoors, especially in areas where I can enjoy the sights and sounds of nature, far away from highways and crowds. For six years or more before the pandemic, I was part of a group, “Walking in the Woods,” led by Dave O’Brien, of Hales Corners, Wisconsin. Each week we would meet at the Community Enrichment Center outside Clement Manor and carpool to a park or other wooded area that Dave had selected for exploration. With Dave always at the lead, we’d explore natural areas around Milwaukee, stopping now and then to take photographs or make a close observation of something which had captured our special attention. Sometimes we climbed over fallen trees or skirted around sodden areas. More than once we reached an impasse and had to turn back. Though Dave never admitted to getting lost, we hikers were sometimes dubious. Maybe we were just “wandering” through the woods. Not all those who wander are lost.

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My cousin Joanne’s husband, Glenn, didn’t mind getting lost. Whether he was driving their RV around the country, chauffeuring Joanne up north in the family sedan, or veering off the beaten path on his motorcycle, it was fine with Glenn – more chance to see sights he otherwise would have missed. At an intersection, uncertain whether to turn left or right, he knew that either way would provide interesting scenery. These days GPS can locate us anywhere on the world map, but such a contrivance would have spoiled Glenn’s sense of adventure and discovery that come only when a person dares to venture into uncharted territory. Not all those who wander are lost.

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Freewriting is my favorite kind of writing. There are other names for it – warm-up drafts, wild writing, stream of consciousness, and Morning Pages. A writer doesn’t have to think about spelling or rules of grammar when her mind is in this writing mode; she merely has to let the thoughts come in whatever order they appear and type them out (or write them longhand) as quickly as she is able. Just like Glenn, following his instincts to turn left rather than right, or just like Dave, who would lead us into a tangle of underbrush with the certainty of a leader,

I love to let my thoughts off leash, following them wherever they take me. Sometimes I took those first drafts, with just a bit of editing, to the roundtable critique groups at Redbird Studio and Red Oak Writing. I called them MP’s MPs – Marjorie Pagel’s Morning Pages. “I’d love to live inside your head sometime, to follow those thoughts around,” several of my writing friends would tell me. I continue to be delighted by the twists and turns of thought my freewriting takes me. I’ve learned there are new discoveries in store for all of us every day. Not all those who wander are lost.