On Pilgrimage

I am about to leave on a road trip, which I always try to practice as spiritual pilgrimage. My guide to that whole enterprise for many years now has been Phil Cousineau in his book, The Art of Pilgrimage. He says that  a pilgrimage is a “transformative journey to a spiritual center.” This trip is not solely dedicated to the task of finding a spiritual center; it involves family connections, wilderness and mountain exploration, hospitality of friends. However, even with this variegated agenda, I making it a sacred journey.

Cousineau’s book is crammed full of inspiring lenses with which to view what one sees. It has accessible rituals for leaving home, honoring the sites at which one lands, returning hospitality as a listening guest, and practices that help to remember and record the gifts of one encounters.

Among his suggestions for this trip that I am taking are these:

• Treat everything that comes my way as a part of the sacred time that envelops my pilgrimage.
• Make sure that walking (some of it barefoot!) is part of my road trip, even though I am primarily traveling by car. I have been reading two books on prayer-walking, which are very insightful and energetic. In a sacred manner I am walking. With visible tracks I am walking. In a sacred manner I walk.       White Buffalo Woman
• Bless my leaving, my arriving, the spaces in between.
• Root myself in sacred text each day.
• Bring resources for remembering and savoring the Holy in each experience: journal, pencils, scissors, glue, picture, camera, talisman from home.
• Listen deeply to all I encounter–people, earth, trees and grass, water, the Spirit in each of them.
• Ponder as I go, especially wonder about the Saving Grace that has come my way in this wild and precious Life.

One adage Cousineau quotes again and again for the the traveler has given me pause:  Pilgrim, pass by that which you do not love. As I have pondered that saying, I think he means that a wondering wanderer should go where her heart takes her and not be obligated to see the 10 Must-See lists written in every travel book and guide. However, I am musing on the reality that as we sojourn, whether on a road trip or a soul excursion, that we do find the things that surprise, baffle, and ever horrify. I think of the sojourner we call the Good Samaritan. Those earlier on his road passed by when they saw a person in trouble. And it cost him time, energy and money to stop for the one which his culture told him not to love. Yet he did with integrity and grace attend to the one who needed care. So I am adding a spiritual caveat to Cousineau’s adage: Pilgrim, stop where your heart leads you, where the Star of the Spirit stands still, where you recognize that God is in this place, even if you have not known it. Surely, this will be part of sacred pilgrimage as well.

So I set forth, away for some days from blogs and e-mails, from quotidian mysteries and caregiving, from newspapers and updates on the hour. I leave hearth and home in capable hands. I take myself out of the loop of convention and routine, entrusting myself to the mystery of the road and the Mystery we call God.

May the stars light my way and may I find the interior road. Forward! Traditional Irish farewell