Where am I going? I don’t quite know.
Down to the stream where the king-cups grow —
Up on the hill where the pine-trees blow —
Anywhere, anywhere. I don’t know.
If you were a bird, and lived on high,
You’d lean on the wind when the wind came by,
You’d say to the wind when it took you away:
“That’s where I wanted to go today!”
Where am I going? I don’t quite know.
What does it matter where people go?
Down to the wood where the blue-bells grow —
Anywhere, anywhere. I don’t know.~ Excerpted from A. A. Milne’s poem ‘Spring Morning’
Arnold Schwartzenegger read this poem as he put his class down for a nap in the movie Kindergarden Cop. Putting children down for a nap is seldom easy, but these words are so soothing, they might even put an adult to rest… especially if they were read by Arnold’s strong yet gentle voice.
Milne, who became known for his stories of Winnie the Pooh, wrote another poem ‘Puppy and I’ which has a similar theme. In it he asked rabbits he had met on the road where they were going in their brown fur coats, which made me think of the hare I saw along the trail this morning.
In trying so hard to figure out where we’re going, sometimes we miss the wonders of the world around us, where we are, right now. Sometimes it’s just enough to go… outdoors.