The Pilgrim's Heart!

Dedicated to my fellow pilgrim sojourners!

The pilgrim’s journey begins in the heart……that search for our own authenticity, the power of fitting into your own skin and knowing you came here to be the best possible you. Home begins in the heart and ends in the same heart…… paradoxically and simultaneously, joining us with nature and other human beings in a Oneness that is the sacred mystery of really feeling at home. There is a magic here……we touch this authentic home within our singular hearts…..who we are in the world…..when we are completely in touch with one another and with the world we all live in. Thus the journey home that begins in the heart takes us out of ourselves and into a sacred exploration of our relationship with wild and untamed landscapes, animals, and a conscious intimacy with other diverse humans. For me there is a love of the soil…..growing things, harvesting things, enjoying the beauty of gardens and the color of landscape….the feeling of the earth on my fingers and the grass beneath bare feet. There is an ecstasy about lying in a meadow watching the clouds float by and feeling so connected to heaven and earth. There is joy as an artist to reproduce the colors and textures of the heaven’s and earth.

In finding my home here on earth I have given up steeling myself against harsh reality….the grittiness and clenched jaws that have helped me survive some of the worst experiences. The trouble with steeling yourself against anything is the same steel that guards and protects us, is the same steel that keeps the best stuff at a distance. Letting go of the steel allows my soul to open up and be transformed by a sacred magic that is my true heart’s home…..the love that flows and provides that deep peaceful trust that anything that comes my way will not be more than I can handle. I no longer protect myself from pain…..or joy or love……I do not steel myself against what might be or what has been…..but open my heart and embrace the process of living and trusting each day to be touched by the Divine Dynamics that life itself comes from.

Trusting the pilgrim’s journey is not finding something or someone in the world that is trustable to take us there……it is retrieving that part of ourselves that is trustable….our authentic powerful self in this sacred time and space that leads us there. The deep longing, homesickness and restlessness of our spirit prompts us to come home to this place of peace. And until we arrive there, no globe trotting, diverse friends and relationships, multiple degrees or money in the bank can satisfy our longing for that sense of well being and finding our welcome home sign. We know when we have arrived home…..when we trade in the anxiety for joy, isolation for connection, despair for hope and homelessness for embracing this sacred time and space.