Traveling with a Pilgrim's Heart: THE LONGING...

We are all pilgrims...

   I've known of Iona for years.  I've been to Scotland twice and yet Iona was not on my agenda - until now.  Now it is on my mind constantly.  Why the change?  Why now and not then?  That is the first characteristic of the pilgrim - an intense longing for a place.  It could be a place of religious significance but it needn't be.  It is the longing that ignites the flame in our pilgrim's lamp and the light from it pulls us forward.

   If you are a wise pilgrim, you will ask yourself questions before you go, before you even begin planning the trip...why this place? Why this time?  What is there that isn't here for me?  Clarifying this longing is an important initial stage for the pilgrim and to simply say "I've always wanted to go" is not enough.

    I taught elementary school for many years and an exercise children would do is to write a word vertically and then use each letter to start a word, phrase or sentence that would expand on the idea or meaning of the vertical word.

Illusion illuminated......

Opening the heart.........

Naming the longing......

Answering the call.......

   Trying this exercise again and again over time before your trip may make more concrete this longing....especially if you play into the intuitive dimension of the longing.  Each time you do it new meanings will suggest themselves.  Like the enlarged and highly illuminated first letters in Medieval manuscripts, this exercise puts emphasis on ideas and the idea of the trip is as important as the making of it.

It is better to travel well

than to arrive.  -Buddha

   Here are two sites to explore for discovering ways - an locations - to make the journey a pilgrim experience:

Spiritual Travel

5 Ways to Turn Your Ordinary Trip into a Pilgrimage