We are all travellers in one way or another, each journey varying according to the stages in life.
I travel several roads simultaneously, which makes me a constant life traveller, some paths more painful than others, none of them a holiday, but a journey nevertheless.
“Every time you leave home
another road takes you
into a world you were never in,
New strangers on other paths await.
New places that have never seen you
Will startle a little at your entry.
Old please 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 movers sublet 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 creat 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 towards
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 awakened way
Gathered wisely into your inner ground;
That you may not waste the invitations
Which wait along the way to transform you
May you travel safely arrive refreshed
And live your time away to its fullest;
Return home, more enriched, and free
To balance the gift of days which wall you.”
–For the traveller
John O’Donohue from the book Benedictus
For the last seven days I have had the pleasure of my daughter’s company, and today she travels back.
To all those on the road to somewhere, may you find what you are looking for, especially the peace you pursue, the clarity you desire, and leave the darkness behind.
