The Pilgrimage Is You

A little over a month ago, I wrote about a young friend of mine who was having a hard time and how I felt that I had not shared my spirit with her as much as I could have.  I made a commitment to her, and myself, to send her one reading every day from "Notes from the Song of Life."  This morning I finished that 30-day commitment and the reading included this passage:

You sometimes act as if you were carrying the torch out to the great unknown.  You are wrong.  Others have carried the torch out.  Now you are carrying it back.  You are returning.  Accept your homeless home.  Give up any other ideas.  You are not a stranger in a foreign place.  There is no place that is more your home than where you are now.  You are a stranger in your own homeland.  The earth beneath you knows you.  Heaven above you knows you.  All that is around you is welcoming you.  There should be no strangers here.  You and the grass are one. You and the bird are one.  You and the path are one.  You and the wagon train are one.  You and the rhythm are one.


You are the pilgrimage.  The pilgrimage is you.

My young friend has made a remarkable step on her journey.  She has kept her commitment to herself and also embraced her own spirit.  She's beginning to realize that she is "not a stranger in a foreign place."  It is beautiful to watch this flower blossom and to be part of this incredible pilgrimage of life.

About the image: "and the time came" started with a perfectly round cactus in the Sedona desert and then merged with one of my favorite quotes ... "And the time came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom." -- Anais Nin