Pilgrim progress - Beyond destiny

So with all this walking and meditating, arriving and leaving, I pause for further thought on the word 'destiny'. Destiny is clearly some kind of friend with the word destination, and the word destination has to do with arrival. Today my dear pilgrim friends' dip their feet into the Atlantic sea as their long road to Finisterre winds to an end and now they take the deep breath of arrival and perhaps ask -what next?

Here's an idea - the word destiny is such a strong concept still in our world view because it describes the moment of arrival we are all looking for, when we truly connect with what we were made for and it all 'comes together'. We might look for it in a relationship, or a job, a vocation or a travel experience but maybe, just maybe, our destiny does not lie one concrete happening, but rather is with us all the time, under our nose? That sense of connectedness where we feel most invigorated and alive may not be at a distant end point, it might just be in the daily discovery and living of who we truly are in the world. Magic moments come when we collide with circumstances or people who resonate with the tune that we are playing, but the important thing is to keep making our own unique music :)

Pilgrims Progress five - Feet

Well some people have foot phobias and others have foot fetishes but I am just gonna say - I LIKE FEET :) It's interesting that in the English language the foot is used as a metaphor for many things 'cold feet' when you are doubting something, 'itchy feet' when you are unsettled, 'two left feet' when you can't dance and 'sore feet', ok actually that's not so metaphorical that's just when your foot hurts. But you get the idea ... So how are you feet feeling today and if they could speak what would they say? Consider that the state of your feet could be an indication of where the rest of you is at.

Pilgrim's prayer -Foot Mediatation: TAKE GOOD TIME to follow this mediation :)

Relax and make yourself comfortable
Become aware of your feet
What feeling are you getting from your feet
Maybe you could put this feeling into 3 describing words
Pause on these words
Consider how the rest of your
Body
Mind
Soul
May also be sharing in those feelings
Now become aware of someone washing your feet
Gently, carefully, bringing healing
Maybe you could put the healing you are receiving into 3 describing words
Pause on these words
Consider how the rest of your
Body
Mind
Soul
May be receiving this healing

Smile, wiggle your toes
You are loved.

Pilgrim progress four - Known contd

Psalm 139

'You have searched me, Lord,
    and you know me.
² You know when I sit and when I rise;
    you perceive my thoughts from afar.
³ You discern my going out and my lying down;
    you are familiar with all my ways.
⁴ Before a word is on my tongue
    you, Lord, know it completely.'

To me this is a beautiful text about the Divine Being's intimate knowledge of us. God knows how many times I'm gonna hit the snooze alarm in the morning, the parts of my body I secretly pick, he knows my thoughts when I am saddest and happiest, he knows my brave-face smile and my private giggle. He knows how the situations I face today will affect me, he even knows what I will think or say about them. Why? Well in my opinion, this is not because he has got my life pre-worked out or because he is pulling my vocal chords like a puppet, but rather because he's so nestled into my heart, so 'familiar with all my ways' that it is like an extreme version of the married couple who finish others' sentences or the parent who anticipates a child's fall and is there to catch them. How about resting in the fact your Divine Lover will always be passionate for your every move, hung on your every word and delighting in every corner of your soul.

Prayer for the Pilgrims:
Every day may your steps bring you closer to the knowledge of the Lover that has always been at your side x

Pilgrim's Progress three - Known

‘He walked before God all the days of his life’. This phrase appears shed loads In the Bible and seems to be a popular way for Old Testament writers to sum up the life of a believer. To live your life before, in front, with reference to, acknowledgement of, in the conscious presence of a Someone is I guess distinct from a general random walk.

Lately I have been having lots of conversations about the word ‘DESTINY’ and I note that despite all our modern advances comforts and technologies, people still have a sense that something bigger than all this operating in their lives and desire to seek out their place in it all. When you break it down further, I think to speak of destiny is often to speak of identity, do I have a unique purpose, who am I or perhaps more importantly, am I known?

This for me is where the walking before God bit comes in – to walk before God is to live knowing that you are known. Being known from a perspective beyond us, having our life in some way observed, is I believe what holds us in the fabric of this complex universe and gives us meaning.

Prayer for the Pilgrims:
May you walk in His Presence, as His Presence enfolds you
May you walk in His Love, as His Love ever moulds you
May you know you are known under sun, under sky
May you know you are watched with the kindliest eye

Pilgrim's progress two -Walking

I've got this hunch, there is something about walking. 'Something happens in your brain when your walk that helps you to think' said a pupil of mine quite unexpectedly the other day. It turns out that research shows walking regularly increases your life expectancy and  lowers your risk of contracting mental illnesses including conditions related to memory loss.
But there is something else I think, something primeval: man, feet, earth, not too fast and too slow, our steady purposeful motion under the wide sky. Digging around a bit more I see that in the Hebrew Bible, to walk indicates much more than an activity or a low budget sport, it refers to your actual state of being, your way of living. Everyone has their own walk don't they? And it would be hard work (though potentially quite amusing) to fake this over a long period of time. The way you walk is the 'way you roll' as we say in modern speak. The Scriptures speak of walking humbly, faithfully or obediently, walking in the Way or off the path, in the steps of the wicked or in the rhythm of the Spirit. So as we start our journey we become more conscious of our way of walking, but I suggest the deeper revelation to come will be not in the how of our walking but in the who with ... to be continued ...

Prayer for Pilgrims:
May our walking bring us to our knees in prayer, may our prayers strengthen our feet to walk

Pilgrim Progress One - Thin spaces

Hello bloggettes! First apologies -it's been a while! But what better time to get back on the blogging bandwagon than after a surprisingly profound interlude on the oh-so-close-to-my-front-door 'Camino de Santiago' (smug face). Currently I have some precious friends following the route, so last weekend I decided to go along for the ride. Such was the depth and range of the stories I heard and the characters I met that I became convinced that Martin Sheen was about to jump out at me from behind a near-by haystack. But, ironically, what I had neither bargained for nor prepared for, was that God could be waiting for me too and I was about to be tripped up - in a good way. 
Forgive me if I use this term wrongly, but what I am often longing for is to live in a 'thin space'. And by 'thin space' sadly I am not referring to the space between my bikini top and bikini bottoms (diet pending) but rather that state of being where you feel deeply sensitized to the reality around you, its significance and worth, your place in it all, God. In some ancient traditions like that of the Celts, they believed there were actual physical places in which you could experience more of this closeness - the holy, the sacred UP IN YOUR FACE.

So as I merrily walked the Way this weekend, in mid animated chat with a lovely lady from Tennessee, I suddenly found my voice breaking into tears, tears that appeared to becoming from some very deep place, not sadness, not really joy either, I guess I'd call it Spirit - something in my Spirit moved as we shared some hopes and dreams and I really quite enjoyed it! Was it the wine the night before, the lack of sleep due to a spectacular symphony of snoring, the sun stroke, the hormones, or something quite OTHER? the mysterious whisper that comes when you least expect, the stone in the road that brings you to your knees.

I have decided to keep blogging until my friends reach Santiago, thus joining in pilgrimage with them virtually and seeking out some thinness in my own daily walking!