A Pilgrim's Journey

To journey without being changed

is to be a nomad.

To change without journeying

is to be a chameleon.

To journey and to be transformed

by the journey

is to be a pilgrim.

Mark Nepo, “The Book of Awakening”, 2000

I am on a journey, in Southern California – without family or friend, responsibility, demand or task.  I came feeling depleted and drawn, hoping for renewal and perspective, and longing for peace and quiet.  There is a certain peace, a certain ‘way’ in this verse, by Mark Nepo, which draws me in. 

To be a pilgrim sounds so much better than to be a struggling soul fighting the current of ones’ life.  To be on a journey is to invite flow into your existence, no beginning and no end, a continuation of yesterday, a step into tomorrow.  That is how my life feels.  The journey has been within and without and I am changing because of it, so I must be a pilgrim.  I like that.  I really like it.  It’s as if it gives complete permission to simple let go, knowing that the journey – and those on it – are the teachers and every experience is okay, simply as it is.

To embrace my personal pilgrimage, I must change my relationship with mistakes. Mistakes are the inevitable path to learning, to changing, and to growing.  I am on a journey toward the sacred space within, to momentarily know grace, and then move on.

I am a pilgrim.