Celeste Headlee

Set aside a chunk of time every day to do nothing productive. Take a walk without a destination and without worrying about the number of steps you’ll take. Go outside.

LAST YEAR, I was driving to the movies with my son and a small car pulled in front of us. On the back bumper was a sticker with a quote from J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings books: “Not all who wander are lost.” My son read it, considered it, and then said, “You can tell that was written a long time ago because people don’t wander anymore. We have GPS now.”
I thought he was being facetious at the time, but looking back, I realize he was simply speaking the literal truth: We rarely go anywhere now without finding the fastest, most efficient way to reach our destination. It has become easier than ever to be specific about our goals and to reach them quickly. In many ways, we have become a goal-oriented culture. Wandering, or even getting lost, are old-fashioned activities.

But important, life-changing events are influenced and affected by the words we choose to say or leave unspoken.