“The realization hit me full force as I walked into the Cathedral piazza in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, for the first time in 2018: I am a pilgrim. Not a hiker. Not a tourist. Not a visitor to holy places. A pilgrim. I have traveled with a sense of openness and adventure and curiosity. I have traveled, not just with my body but with my mind and heart, my soul and my spirit. I have been part of a ‘moveable community’ of fellow pilgrims who bear witness to each other’s journeys. I recognize in the faces of other pilgrims the state of my own soul: I know, deep in the deepest place of knowing that, even though I still am who I am, I have been changed and transformed and will never again be the same.”
This is from a reflection by Rev. Elizabeth Kaeton called Coming Home After Camino: From Pilgrim to Citizen Again. I’m still unpacking my suitcase, backpack, and the experiences of St. Cuthbert’s Walk, and I look forward to sharing stories and pictures as I piece together what this pilgrimage has meant to me. At this point it’s as if I’m carrying a backpack of feelings, so I’m writing and praying and… walking. Yesterday at work I was at loose ends and jet-lagged and the only thing I could think to do was walk, and it helped. I guess that’s my new motto: Walk when you don’t know what to do. St. Augustine famously said, “It is solved by walking.” I’d say that exhaustion, fear, uncertainty, and life itself, can be unknotted, soothed, and healed by walking.
In faith,
Marylee
Ps. This Sunday, June 4, is a BIG Sunday!
* Intergenerational Worship
* Communion
* Baptism of ten-year-old Todd Manning
* Bibles presented to 3Simple Rules4Kids
* Butterfly blankets for all kids
* Honoring Jan Lanterman’s 50 years as our Choir and Music Director (There’ll be a reception with a money tree for Jan following worship)