Hello All -
- from the Big Apple, where it is clear skies in the early morning hours. I got here from Finland on Monday night. This is what Lammi looked like when I left. Pretty isn't it?
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| FROM MY BEDROOM WINDOW DURING THE ROHATSU SESSHIN IN LAMMI FINLAND
I am heading for Maine in an hour or so where I suspect I will find more snow again :) More travel, more surprises, more challenges, more steps along the path; the journey continues.
I have been reflecting a bit on what it means to be a pilgrim, and why, in this day and age, some of us are called to this kind of activity, this way of being in the world, and I suspect each pilgrim has their own unique reasons. Yet, at the same time, I suspect the basic drive we share is a common one. Live deeply.
For me, past pilgrimages, (religious or secular), have had seemingly different kinds of motivations behind them. Yet, all have had the common denominator of wonder and joy. For some of these walks, I had no idea of why I was walking them, I just knew I had to. Some of them have been about measuring myself in some way, and some have been about "Am I worthy?" As different as each has been, all have been about healing though I didn't have an inkling of this until I had walked one or two. Each has been a wondrous gift. This last pilgrimage is no different.
Pilgrimages always "end" with the last step before one takes the "next" step on our individual path, a path we each make for ourselves by walking/doing/being. There is no difference between one being state to another, one section of trail from another, one activity from another. Its all Life. This pilgrimage brought this home again in a different way, for it is the first time I have walked with people who were part of my life before the walk, and with who I most likely will continue to share contact with in the future. Are we all the same as when we left? What does it mean to have shared experience? Who is I? Who is we? Questions like these occur to me because, always before, I have walked alone.
For some people it is scary to be alone, for some of us, it is scary to be with others. I have been scared in both places :)
Over the years I have come to understand that this is what I found in the arms of nature when I walked alone:
My
help is in the mountain
Where
I take myself to heal
The
earthly wounds
That
people give to me.
I
find a rock with the sun on it
And
a stream where the water runs gentle
And
the trees which one by one give me company.
So
must I stay for a long time
Until
I have grown from the rock
And
the stream is running through me
And
I cannot tell myself from one tall tree.
Then
I know that nothing touches me
Nor
makes me run away.
My
help is in the mountain
That
I take away with me.
Earth
cure me. Earth receive my woe.
Rock
strengthen me. Rock receive my weakness.
Rain
wash my suddenness away.
Rain
receive my doubt.
Sun
make sweet my song.
Sun
receive the anger from my heart.
Traditional Native American
If you notice, there are no human beings present in this image. I once lived here all the time, a place where humans had no place in the experience of safety or comfort.
Today, I miss my traveling companions of the past few weeks, and while I treasure the solo experience of being embedded in the wholeness of nature, I now also have the desire to share this being-ness with other human beings, to experience this deep connectedness in their presence, with them, to them.
Peace to all -
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