A Solly’s Journey excerpt

Sometime in the life of a man there comes upon him a restlessness, a seeking of freedom that demands a moving on; a search for mysterious things beyond the bounds of current experience. All men are touched by this yearning, but for most, it remains a siren call, a dream, a goal unfulfilled, an undefined stirring of the soul that passes with the passage of time and the demands of domesticity.

For a few driven souls, however, restlessness overtakes them; it seeps into the marrow of their bones and becomes the essence of them. Like twigs caught in a stream, they may pause but must move on, and so they are doomed to a lifetime of seeking; an endless pursuit of elusive but undefined happiness. Such men leave the comfort of home and hearth for hardship and privation, though rarely do they understand clearly what it is they seek. Some seek fortune and fame, some infamy or mayhem. A rare few seek opportunity to provide for others what they themselves disdain. But for all of them, their obsession is rooted in the pursuit of the unknown. Once found, whether it is happiness, fame, wealth, or something else, the restlessness cannot be satisfied by their goal achieved. Like a butterfly seeking the nectar of the next flower, their searching must begin anew, for it is not finding, but seeking, that impels these men along their rocky road. With the new birth of each cycle of seeking, such men are renewed, reborn, and a new growing begins. But inevitably, eventually, even such seekers must alight and call somewhere home, for it is the immutable way of the world.