Connected Colors-A Gift from the Garden

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Connected Colors-A Gift from the Garden

This week has provided space for some much needed self-care. Seven weeks into my first term at The Seattle School and we have a week "off" to read, write, reflect and rest.

With most of my reading already caught up, I was all too eager to get my fingernails dirty and be outside! My spirit rejuvenates in the soil of my garden. It is where I get connected and find connectedness. It is where I engage awe and wonder in ways that only the natural world can provide. As I wrestled overgrown perennials and dug deep into the damp earth to plant promises of spring, I was struck with the diversity of color that still surrounded me, even as Autumn begins to shed her vibrant hues.

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Extended Grace

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Waymarkers Friends, My writings and musings have been quieter this summer.  What with my children home from school and a deep-belly sense that our family is in a time of transition,  I intentionally drew a boundary line around ourselves that would require me to stay present to them.  It is far too easy for me to live in my head where words and phrases are lined up in a beautiful order, out of reach of honey-sticky hands and air-borne balls, and not fully see or hear what they are needing me to watch (for the hundredth time) or say (do I really need to repeat the answer to that "why?" AGAIN?!).  I needed to call myself out of my writing reveries to be available for spontaneous fun and play, of which we have had a summer full!

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A Sacred Journey, Part 3-Coming Home, A Strange Return

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A Sacred Journey, Part 3-Coming Home, A Strange Return

Friends, I've been blessed by this invitation to guest-blog at A Sacred Journey and share some of my thoughts and reflections on pilgrimage and Iona.  Today's post is the last of my three-part series as the "Pilgrim in Residence."  In this piece, I share what I have sifted down as the essential impetus for going on pilgrimage, but a value that can only be confronted upon returning home.  We leave searching for something great and beyond ourselves.  We return to find that much of what we had left in search for, is found just beyond our doorsteps when we engage and live on behalf of something other than ourselves.

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A Sacred Journey-Part Two from the Pilgrim in Residence

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A Sacred Journey-Part Two from the Pilgrim in Residence

It has been a joyful opportunity to share about my pilgrimages to Iona, Scotland and further reflections on the Arrival stage of pilgrimage.  It always blesses and challenges me to see not just these trips as sacred, but every day of our life.  Read on for a piece I wrote for A Sacred Journey that goes deeply into what meets you at the place of your dreams and your desires. 

 

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Iona Pentecost Pilgrimage: An Island Between Heaven and Earth

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Iona Pentecost Pilgrimage: An Island Between Heaven and Earth

The Sacred Island of Iona is riddled with fables, legends and lore.  Around every bend you encounter places that are linked to a history deeper than our own and stories that reverberate with both the whisking wind and the beat of angels wings.  While we came here keenly aware of the mysteries that shroud this island, our time on Iona was strengthened by opportunities to pull apart the veiled sacred sagas and see behind the curtain the very real people and relationships that have curated all that Iona is known for today.  

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Iona Pentecost Pilgrimage: Island Journey

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Iona Pentecost Pilgrimage: Island Journey

The pilgrimage around Iona visits places of sacred significance and historical importance on the island.  There are 18 sites in all and can take nearly all day to get to each one.  Our group broke the pilgrimage up in a few days-hitting the Abbey's specific spots while we did our tour and hiking up Dun I on a quiet afternoon-so that we could enjoy the heft of the hiking down to the south end of the island to really spend some meaningful time at St. Columba's Bay and enjoy the reflections at holy sites along the way.

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Iona Pentecost Pilgrimage: When in Rome...

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Iona Pentecost Pilgrimage: When in Rome...

A fundamental aspect of pilgrimage is to engage the local culture of a site.  It is paramount to experience with your senses the place where you are.  This means intentionally involving the sight, sound, smell, savor and sensations of a place.  It is advisable to not just find a McDonald's or Starbucks when you are hungry or thirsty, but seek after local cuisine and appreciate it for the expanding understanding it gives you for a locale.  It means taking out the earbuds and listening for the unique melodies that are native to a particular place; this could be the sounds of the sea, regional birdsong, or the lilt of a distinct accent.  And it is certainly seeing the sights that enhance the definition of a place.

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Iona Pentecost Pilgrimage: Lectio Divina with Wind & Stone

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Iona Pentecost Pilgrimage: Lectio Divina with Wind & Stone

Lectio Divina is an ancient contemplative prayer practice used to allow scripture to speak to our hearts and to help us to discover the multiple ways God dwells there. It means "sacred reading," and this practice can be extended beyond just the reading of scripture or inspired poetry. In the Celtic Christian tradition, the created world was seen as a revelation of God, and could be "read" to learn about and experience the Divine. Lectio Divina is a wonderful way of engaging the natural elements around us by inviting the "rocks to cry out" and the wind to whisper (or in the case of being on Iona, EXCLAIM!) to us the things of the numinous, the sacred, the divine.

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Iona Pentecost Pilgrimage: A Mirror of Questions

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Iona Pentecost Pilgrimage: A Mirror of Questions

It is in the spirit of Quest that we walk towards an answer, a hope, an ache, towards healing, while on a pilgrimage. It is the desire to seek and find. While we are walking, while we are looking for the answer, creates a constant state of expectancy, which raises our spirits and lessens much of the "normal" stress or fatigue of everyday life.

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Iona Pentecost Pilgrimage: Solviture ambulando

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Iona Pentecost Pilgrimage: Solviture ambulando

Here on Iona, where it is often stated in promotional material that sheep outnumber people and cars, everyone walks.  There is but a single road and upon that one walks to get to the ferry, get to the Abbey, get a cup a tea.  It is both a means to a destination and a value in and of itself. The road becomes a liturgy and walking the prayers. 

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Iona Pentecost Pilgrimage: Arrival-Hospitality

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Iona Pentecost Pilgrimage: Arrival-Hospitality

The warm invitation that this island, and its people, extend to new comers is quite profound.  There is a very real sense that there are no strangers in our midst.  In the context of the single road, the hostel or the beaches, there are ready smiles to lift yours, gregarious laughter rushing out to include you, and generous invitations to share tea, a meal or a bit of chocolate.  There is a sense of general community and conviviality that spans generations and gender.

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Iona Pentecost Pilgrimage-The Pilgrim's Path: Its All About the Eyes

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Iona Pentecost Pilgrimage-The Pilgrim's Path: Its All About the Eyes

I’m well on my way and so far, all of my connections have been seamless.  The seven hour flight to Iceland’s Reykjavik is a drowsy memory mixed with some knitting, a book on labyrinths and a bit of the Lord of the Rings.  Customs went on a bit longer due to me forgetting to have a printed copy of our lodging on Iona.  (NOTE: do bring printed copies of all reservations in your carry on bags.  The hope to bring up the email accommodation confirmation on your phone at the customs desk will be thwarted.)

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Iona Pentecost Pilgrimage-Departure: Fire and Fear

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Iona Pentecost Pilgrimage-Departure: Fire and Fear

The last load of laundry was finally folded and last minute pre-travel errands run.  Whispered prayers and silent repetitons of the “do not forget list” infused rain gear, woolen layers and inspirational books as they were packed tightly away in the suitcase.   Today I departed for my pilgrimage to Iona and I couldn’t be more eager to get past this stage!

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The Labyrinth: Stepping into the Sacred Path

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The Labyrinth: Stepping into the Sacred Path

A powerful symbol, labyrinths are usually in the form of a circle with a meandering but purposeful path, from the edge to the center and back out again, large enough to be walked into. Each labyrinth is unicursal, that is to say it has only one path (whereas a maze is multicursal-they offer a choice of paths, some with many entrances and exits), and once we choose to enter it, the path becomes a metaphor for our journey through life, sending us to the center of the labyrinth and back out to the edges via the same path. In this way, it becomes a microcosm of a pilgrimage or a sacred journey.

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Taking the Outdoors In

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Taking the Outdoors In

By bringing in something in from the outside world, we are creating reminders of where we are.  As a result of big-box home stores going global and all the home decorating catalogs that infiltrate our front doors, our home interiors can begin to reflect a homogeneous look and feel.  We could be inside and really be anywhere.  Our regional landscapes give us bold reminders of where we live and inform a sense of our identity and spirit.  This connection to place is critical in a global, technological driven era.  Simple objects from just outside your front door can distinguish your homescape and provide a native anchor to your home.

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Cheasty Greenspace: A Place of Goodness and Grace

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Cheasty Greenspace: A Place of Goodness and Grace

The detective called inquiring after whether or not we had found "anything" in the woods since the fatal shooting that occurred near Cheasty Greenspace/Mt.View on February 4, 2013.  While we have certainly unearthed some curious, and somewhat disturbing, artifacts during our forest restoration work parties (lined up pairs of shoes next to an axe, dismembered dolls, rosaries, and large singular bones to name a few), no, we had not found the weapon involved in this fatal incident. 

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Easter: The Place of Our Resurrection

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Easter: The Place of Our Resurrection

This Easter evening we resurrection-believing types are likely sitting down, basking in the power of today's symbolism, while licking the stolen-from-our-kids'-Easter-basket chocolate off our fingers and pondering what to do with all those hard boiled eggs.  Our Lenten journeys over, we are quickly back to sipping on our coffees, wine or whathaveyou's, secretly grateful that that discipline practice is over and we can return back to ordinary life.

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