Today's post may well be more for me than you. I was up early this morning and went walking in Santiago. I ended up at the Cathedral and went inside. I was about the only person in this huge place and decided to sit quietly for a moment to contemplate my journey. I felt an opening in my body and just pulled out my book of Blessings by John O'Donahue that I brought with me on the trip. I opened it right to this Blessing:
For the Traveller
"Every time you leave home,
Another road takes you
Into a world you were never in.
New strangers on the path await.
New places that have never seen you
Will startle a little at your entry.
Old places that know you well
Will pretend nothing
Changed since your last visit.
When you travel, you find yourself
Alone in a different way,
More attentive now
To the self you bring along,
Your more subtle eye watching
You abroad; and how what meets you
Touches that part of the heart
That lies low at home :
How you unexpectedly attune
To the timbre in some voice,
Opening a conversation
You want to take in
To where your longing
Has pressed hard enough
Inward, on some unsaid dark,
To create a crystal of insight
You could not have known
You needed
To illuminate
Your way.
When you travel,
A new silence
Goes with you,
And if you listen,
You will hear
What your heart would
Love to say.
A journey can become a sacred thing:
Make sure before you go,
To take the time
To bless your going forth,
To free your heart of ballast
So that the compass of your soul
Might direct you toward
The territories of spirit
Where you will discover
More of your hidden life,
And the urgencies
That deserve to claim you.
May you travel in an awkward way,
Gathered wisely into your inner ground;
That you may not waste the invitations
Which wait along the way to transform you."
John O'Donahue - To Bless the Space Between Us
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