Pilgrimage as a theme for our Lenten Journey

Welcome to this winding road. It is with an open heart that I welcome you to this place. I look forward to exploring some of the many thoughts and interests that I have and wonder about yours. Please join me in the conversation about the longing for God in our midst. Please know that I believe that God comes to us in laughter, tears, anger, and sorrow. God knows infinitely more about us than we can ever know about ourselves. Please join me and let us share our journey together.

Writing is one of the things I love and yet must admit have a very strong love/ hate relationship with. I resist it and yet long for it's place in my life.
Without doubt it is one of the things that allows me to play with ideas and images. Anne Lamott is one of my favorite writers.

"Writing and reading decrease our sense of isolation. They deepen and widen and expand our sense of life: they feed the soul. When writers make us shake our heads with the exactness of their prose and their truths, and even make us laugh about ourselves or life, our buoyancy is restored. We are given a shot at dancing with, or at least clapping along with, the absurdity of life, instead of being squashed by it over and over again. It's like singing on a boat during a terrible storm at sea. You can't stop the raging storm, but singing can change the hearts and spirits of the people who are together on that ship." — Anne Lamott (Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life)

On this Ash Wednesday 2010 I begin this journey of writing a Blog. I have been mulling this idea over in my head for months. This lent I am using the word Pilgrimage as a theme. When I think of Pilgrimage I think of travel to far away places, travel to important places, for important people. The definition of Pilgrimage is to visit a sacred place. It has occurred to me in the last couple of weeks that perhaps it is unfair to leave this work to only some. What would it be like to see our lives as sacred places? What would it be like to treat the next 40 days as an important time for us to journey with God, to be really present and intentional in our life?

"The Art of Pilgrimage" by Phil Cousineau is a book that I have been drinking in. "What is sacred is what is worthy of our reverence, what evokes awe and wonder in the human heart, and what when contemplated transforms us utterly." We are each longing for wholeness, for something more, something most of us are unable to even articulate. It is this longing that we so often misunderstand. Are we really lonely? What are we lonely from? Are we hungry? What do we really need to feel full? What are your questions? Perhaps you are bored with your life, what do you find interesting? "Uncover what you long for and you will discover who you are."

The picture that I posted at the top of the page is one that I just took in the church that I serve as an Episcopal Priest. We are The Episcopal Church of St. John the Baptist, in Sanbornville, NH. We have many beautiful stain glass windows. My goal was to see things in them that I had not seen before. What do you see? This window is of St. Elizabeth. When I look at this I am drawn to her eyes. I see wisdom and worry. It seems she has traveled many miles to this place. She is pale, yet strong. The window is vibrant and yet has elements of darkness. The shot at the top of the page is the hem of her dress. The colors are deep and beautiful. What do you see?

I invite each of you to go to a place in your life and look at it from a different perspective. Do you see something that you had never seen before? Maybe you will see something that you see all the time and yet today, with God's help, with a new awareness, and a curiosity that comes from that longing, it will be made new. Let us make this pilgrimage together. Each of us have our own story, we are called to grow into the people that God most needs us to be. Created uniquely in the image of God. Let today be a day when we know that we are traveling to an important place and that we are important people.

May God Bless us as we enter into this Lenten season.