Life As Pilgrimage

Not long ago I received a thank you card for the support I had offered someone while they were going through a real transformative period in their life.

At the end of their note, they wrote:

Thank you for all of your help through my journey.  It has been a rough one, but what journey's aren't?

What journey's aren't?

When I read that, I thought: What a great observation.

And it reminded me of an idea I have been playing with for several years now which is: Life as Pilgrimage.

Ever since I read the book Christian Meditation: Experiencing the Presence of God, A Guide to Contemplation by James Finley (a clinical psychologist and former Trappist Monk who lived and studied at the same monastery with Thomas Merton), I have always liked the idea of respectfully adapting spiritual practices that might be considered intended for solely the monastics, religious professionals, or the most pious amongst us.

As a spiritual "layperson," I find there can be a lot of benefit from sincerely applying spiritual and religious concepts and rituals to my everyday life in a serious way.

This includes the concept and ritual of "pilgrimage."

The virtual encyclopedia Wikipedia defines pilgrimage as the following:

A pilgrimage is a journey or search of moral or spiritual significance.  Typically, it is a journey to a shrine or other location of importance to a person's beliefs and faith, although sometimes it can be a metaphorical journey into someone's own beliefs...A person who makes such a journey is called a pilgrim.

I actually really like this definition.

Which leads me to a question: If you who are reading this blog also identify yourself as a Spiritual Seeker and/or someone who is on a journey of spiritual significance of his or her own, then are you too not a pilgrim just as I?

I know it is hard to not associate the word "pilgrimage" with places like Mecca, Jerusalem, the Ganges, The Vatican, Bodh Gaya, or Santiago de Compostela.

But if a pilgrimage is a journey of spiritual significance that can be both literal and/or metaphorical, then wouldn't it make sense that anyone who's personal journal looks more like a spiritual memoir might actually fit this definition pretty accurately?

And, more importantly, if I frame my life as pilgrimage then what implications does that have for the high points of life, the low points of life, and the very ordinary (which is to say the majority) points in life?

I surely don't have the answer to that question, but I still like asking it anyway and will continue to do so...

I also like to visualize the metaphor of pilgrimage when I go for a hike in the woods alone.  With all of its perfect archetypes like wilderness, getting lost, and returning home again, a hike in the woods is ripe with pilgrim imagery.

I even like to take my hikes on a Sunday sometimes--as opposed to going to church--as a means to embody the sacredness of ideas like Sabbath and connection to divinity.

About a month ago, I went into the woods in just this way, and I took these photos.

Seeing images in my literal path like walking sticks, color-coded sign posts, resting places, paths covered with sheets of treacherous ice, and warning signs of danger, it felt all too real for the ways my real life as pilgrimage has actually taken shape.

And, as with any pilgrim's journey, sometimes the sweetest moment is when we make that toast that we are home once again. Safe and sound.

I hope that you too, fellow pilgrim, can find inspiration and solace on the spiritual path as well.

May it be so.