Pilgrim...?

Mom, so you want to go to Easter Island?

Sure, someday.

Mom, you want to go the Galapagos Islands?

Yeh, the wildlife is supposed to incredible.

Mom……………….

I was getting peppered with questions by my 19 years old as I was preparing for our 4th of July picnic. Her questions got the best of me, and I finally broke concentration and looked into the dining room and found her leaning over the world map spread across the table which was littered with random yellow flags. She was asking about the spots marked by the yellow flags.

The map had been a Christmas gift several years ago from a dear friend as a means of encouragement. I’ve been talking about this trip for a while.

And those yellow flags. They marked the most significant spiritual meccas in the world. I had forgotten that’s what they marked and had to go back and expand on the answers I had just given my persistent offspring.

“Pilgrims are poets who create by taking journeys.”

While reading “Traveling with Pomegranates” by Sue Monk Kidd, which is a wonderful read about a mother daughter journey (more on that harbinger later), she quoted Richard Nieburh, a noted theologian who said, “Pilgrims are poets who create by taking journeys.”

Pilgrim

noun

a person who journeys to a sacred place for religious reasons.

synonyms:

worshiper, devotee, believer

verb

archaic

travel or wander like a pilgrim

I’ve been asked why I’m leaving, and in fact, I have been meditating on the theme/purpose/outcome of this wild adventure I’m planning. Maybe one of the themes has been right under my nose all along. At the very onset of thinking about this trip I had researched spiritually significant sites around the world and began flagging….

I thought pilgrims had something to do with Thanksgiving. Maybe I will be a pilgrim. Or maybe a poet.