May you be blessed with good friends.
May you learn to be a good friend to yourself.
May you be able to journey to that place in your soul where
there is great love, warmth, feeling, and forgiveness.
May this change you.
May it transfigure that which is negative, distant, or cold in you.
May you be brought in to the real passion, kinship, and affinity of belonging.
May you treasure your friends.
May you be good to them and may you be there for them; may they bring you all the blessings, challenges, truth,
and light that you need for your journey.
May you never be isolated.
May you always be in the gentle nest of belonging with your anam cara.
By John O'Donohue
"May you be able to journey to that place in your soul where there is great love, warmth, feeling, and forgiveness."
The idea of journeying to a place in my soul is one that jumps out at me today. This has been and continues to be a great summer. Journey seems to be a theme that I have been able to play with a lot. Until recently, journey always was something that I read about, reflected on in a metaphorical way, or just plain wondered about. Recently I returned from a trip to Ireland. The journey began long before the plane left the ground and continues to move me.
Words have become one of those things that I love to play with and continue to peak my curiosity. In seminary we were encouraged to take Greek and Hebrew so that we could really see and play with language. I could not do everything, so that was not one of the areas that I was able to tackle but wonder if I might some day. But, today I just went to a dictionary, and wanted to look at what the word journey really means. This is what I found:
a. The act of traveling from one place to another; a trip.
b. A distance to be traveled or the time required for a trip: a 2,000-mile journey to the Pacific; the three-day journey home.
2. A process or course likened to traveling; a passage: the journey of life.
v. jour·neyed, jour·ney·ing, jour·neys
To make a journey; travel.
"May you be able to journey to that place in your soul where there is great love, warmth, feeling and forgiveness."
As far away as Ireland is and seemed, without doubt this is the longest journey of all. A life of faith invites us to a way of being that is both very personal and very much in community. Each of us is called to this in different ways. One of the things that continues to surface as a challenge for me is to keep these in balance.
When we are on any journey we need to know who we are and what we need. Packing all the right things is one of the first challenges. This is especially true in this day and age of flying and being charged for everything, it seems. What are the proper shoes? How many cloths should you bring and what kinds of cloths will you need or want in my case? Be sure to have the proper medications, and of course, any hygiene products that feel like a must. Are you a person that can go, go, go, and never need any down time? Or are you a person that wants to see, learn and experience things, but also need some time to let it sink in? Do you make meaning in your world by talking to people and making different experiences thought connection? Or is it possible to feel like you can blend into the scenery and come to know the place form the inside out?
As I learn more about journey, I am learning to be more gentle on myself and more inquisitive about who I am. We spend many years of our lives trying to change and perhaps improve who we are. This is important and fundamental to growing up. But I am coming to know that in that growing process, a key element is meeting oneself, as if meeting an old and special friend. Think of someone in your life that you love and respect, not in a casual way, but in that way that comes from experience or knowing that they really are someone "important" to you. When I do this, I do not think of that person's shortcomings, or ways that that person could or should change. I think of the ways that I feel genuine love and caring for that person. I think of things they have said or done that have changed or influenced who I am. I think of things that I have learned and loved because of knowing them.
"May you be able to journey to that place in your soul where there is great love, warmth, feeling, and forgiveness."
What would it be like to think of ourselves in that light? What would it be like to think of that place within us, that place we could call the soul, as a place of great love, great warmth, a place that the journey can either originate from or can be the destination.
Faith is a lifetime journey, one that is never stagnant, one that is always full of surprises. My prayer today is that we can honor different aspects of this path. John O"Donohue says, "Prayer is the act and presence of sending this light from the bountifulness of your love to other people to heal, free, and bless them. When there is love in your life, you should share it spiritually with those who are pushed to the very edge of life. There is a lovely idea in the Celtic tradition that if you send out goodness from yourself, or if you share that which is happy or good within you, it will all come back to you multiplied ten thousand times. In the kingdom of love there is no competition; there is no possessiveness or control."
Today as I write, I honor the journey within, the journey that is our path of faith and truth. It is important for all of us to continue to know and articulate that journey that leads to that place of love, warmth and forgiveness. Today is important to remember that it is from that place that God can most effectively speak. It is from that place that we can most effectively hear God. Today I am reminded that the journey can be many things, can move in many directions, and always makes life interesting.
"May you be able to journey to that place in your soul were there is great love, warmth, feeling, and forgiveness."
Today I give thanks for the journey that is life and God's grace in it all.
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