A Spiritual Journey to San Diego
Two Wednesdays each month I take a spiritual journey to San Diego and back.
My friend Cristin owns and operates Saffron & Sage, a wellness resource. In addition to essential oils, energy work, massages, and yoga, Saffron & Sage offers spiritual direction. I take a train from Los Angeles to San Diego in the morning and return to Los Angeles the same evening.
It takes me about the same amount of time to travel by train as it does to drive. The difference is I can read or write, listen to podcasts, or look out at the ocean on the train. Sometimes I even talk to other people.
There is time to listen to sacred stillness.
My usual train leaves Union Station in Los Angeles at 7:25 AM. Our spiritual journey south takes us through a series of communities in Los Angeles, Orange, and San Diego counties. We pass missions and churches. Much of our route follows the Pacific coast. The ocean drops off the far horizon.
Most mornings are sunny and bright. The train is a great vantage point to watch lines of surf come ashore.
Sun and wind and waves wash away everything I would like to leave behind. The rhythm of the train is almost relaxing.
I release the things I wish I had completed before I left. The doubts and fears, concerns and anxieties will not help me in San Diego.
My spiritual journey south is often about not holding so tightly onto what I think I need to keep going. I turn my attention from getting ready to leave and finding the right train to the work I will doing in San Diego.
After the train pulls into Santa Fe station in downtown San Diego I walk through Little Italy to Saffron & Sage.
The Spiritual Journey in San Diego
My trips to San Diego remind me of walking a labyrinth. The train in the morning is like walking into the labyrinth, learning the lessons which take me into the center. The time I spend at Saffron & Sage is like being in the center of the labyrinth.
Many of the people I meet at Saffron & Sage do not have much experience with spiritual direction. Often the first thing we talk about is what spiritual direction means.
People come to a place like Saffron & Sage with a wide variety of spiritual backgrounds. Some of them have experiences with organized religion which make them afraid or angry. Many of them feel they have been lied to or mislead about what spiritual life is like.
Some people have no context for spiritual life at all.
My work with them is a conversation. We talk about what spiritual life means to them. I listen as they share their stories. They may tell me things they have never told anyone else before. When I can I ask the best, most insightful questions I can. Sometimes we laugh and sometimes we cry.
The time we spend is sacred, but not because we talk about spiritual life. Our conversations are sacred because we are honest with each other. We tell the truth, we trust each other, and we listen.
The deep, sacred truths in the world around us, and within us, fill us with wisdom.
I am not telling them what to do or even answering their questions. We explore questions together, and often they lead us to more questions.
People often leave reassured and refreshed, and with more questions than when we began.
The time we spend at the center of the labyrinth prepares us for the outward journey.
Spiritual Journey North From San Diego
When I have finished my work at Saffron & Sage I walk back through Little Italy to the station.
This walk is often more prayerful than my walk in the morning. I pray for the people with whom I talked that day, and see them reflected in the people in the neighborhood. They have as many questions about spiritual life, though they hide it well.
I get back to the station, board a train, and we head north to Los Angeles.
Our experience of walking back from the center of the labyrinth is shaped by our walk in and our time in the center. The questions and insights we have gained show us the walk out in new ways.
We return to the world different than we were when we left.
My train ride back to Los Angeles is often more reflective than my trip south earlier that day. I try to sit on the left side of the car because it is closer to the ocean. Most of the times I ride back to Los Angeles are illuminated by the sun setting into the ocean.
My days in San Diego are both tiring and inspiring, hard work and rewarding.
Most of my return trips north to Los Angeles become darker and quieter as we travel.
My returning reflections are about the day’s conversations. I continue to pray and remember.
What was good? What could have been better? Are there things for me to continue reflecting on?
Each Day is a Spiritual Journey
It is not only the days when we travel to San Diego and back which are spiritual journeys for us. We find the pattern of the journey inward, time at the center, and the journey back into the world in each day.
Our spiritual journeys do not merely take us from here to there, from point A to point B.
It is not as if we need to get on a train or a plane or in a car to begin our trip. We may feel we are taking our spiritual journey, but the journey may be taking us along with it.
Spiritual journeys are living things and we relate to each in its own unique ways. Our journeys are personal. Each one shapes us for the next.
Where is today’s spiritual journey taking us?
How is our spiritual journey today guiding us into tomorrow’s?
[Image by jack dorsey]
Greg Richardson is a spiritual life mentor and leadership coach in Southern California. He is a recovering attorney and university professor, and a lay Oblate with New Camaldoli Hermitage near Big Sur, California. Greg’s website is StrategicMonk.com, and his email address is StrategicMonk@gmail.com.
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