Upon returning from my recent journey to Paris and Barcelona, I have been thinking of the idea of pilgrimages—why we feel called to make them, what they mean to us, and how these journeys affect us.
What is it that draws us to a make an intentional journey to a hallowed or historic place? I don’t just mean those of a religious nature or the pilgrimages to shrines or holy sites, though I have made many of those journeys as well. The kind of pilgrimage I’m talking about is my desire to order coffee at Cafe de Flore,
to buy a book at Shakespeare and Company bookstore,
to see the six-toed cats at the Hemingway House in Key West,
and wander down the lane in the West Village in New York where e. e. cummings once lived.
I have done all these and many more.
After I wrote about “Writer as Pilgrim” in my last newsletter, a friend sent an email telling me about a book that touched her deeply: The Art of Pilgrimage by Phil Cousineau. I ordered the book the next day and though I’ve not yet finished the Introduction, I know already this book will take me deeper into my exploration into the concept and the call of pilgrimage.
I know it was more than the coffee I wanted at Cafe de Flore, or the book I bought at Shakespeare and Company. I wanted to be in a place and touch a piece of history that carries meaning for me and to allow the experience to inform my life as I continue to live it.
In my book, Wild Women, Wild Voices, I devote a chapter to Life Journeys and include a section on pilgrimages. The epigraph at the beginning of the chapter is from Miriam Beard: “Travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the idea of living.”
I don’t know where my next pilgrimage will be, but I know there will be one, and another and another and another. I’ll know I’ll write about them, too. For me, writing is another kind of exploration that allows me to discover what has meaning and what matters.
Just found your website and The Lively Muse Blog after reading ‘Writing Alone, Writing Together’, which I borrowed from the local library. There are no writing groups in my area, so decided I would start one, and to help me carry out this idea, I placed an order on line for my own copy of this book plus ‘Wild Women, Wild Voices’.
I have a number of travel journals in the cupboard waiting to be shaped into travel descriptions with accompanying photos, purely for my own enjoyment. They cover walking the Camino de Santiago, Cycling 2000km in Spain and France, hiking the 1000km Bibbulmun track in the south-west of Western Australia, volunteering in the Galapagos Islands and teaching English in a school in China.
Before that I want to write my life story and somewhere along the way I would also like to write my family history. There is plenty to write about, I ‘just’ need to hone my skills.
Hi Lene, Thanks for your comment. I am impressed with your many excursions into the world! Wow. You must have so much material to write from and about. And how wonderful to share it with the world. Here’s the thing about honing our skills: practice! and reading good writers, allowing them to be our teachers, too. I hope your writing group (and my books) serve your work. Good luck and do keep me posted.
In the seventies when I was a Baha’i, I traveled to Iran, Israel, and England. (It was before the Iranian revolution). I am glad I went. Now I want to travel to Tibet.
Hi Barbara. Did you keep a journal while you traveled to those far places? I have such a long, long list of places I want to go. Sometimes I have to remind myself to be where I am.
Hi Judy,
I trvel twice a year….one of my favorite places is the West Village in New York. I enjoyed the photo you shared. I like Washington Square Park for its unconventional people who all seem to “accept” each other….
Arlene
Hi Arlene,
Thanks for sharing a couple of your pilgrimage places in New York. I love Washington Square Park, too, and always have to include Central Park in my time there. Oh and the main Library and Bryant Park. Basically, I’m a park kind of girl. One of my favorite places on the planet is right in my own back yard: San Diego’s Balboa Park.
Good thoughts. The Global Labirynth Project out of Grace Cathedral offered many opportunities to teach metaphorical pilgrimage. To walk the Labirynth is to travel ‘home to ……’
Those years interning with Lauren Artress have left an enduring appreciation for pilgrimage of the soul. When in Paris, I walk the Chartres Labirynth with joy remembering Jean Shinoda Bolen’s re discovering it covered in dirt and chairs.
Thank you Judy.
I brought the pilgrimage to me by making a labyrinth in my back yard with succulents and rocks from construction of the student union at SDSU. (I even have a chunk of the old free speech steps.) Every year on Dec. 27, I invite my former students to my home (I did this even before I retired) and ask them to paint their names and graduate schools or practices (they are mostly in the healing professions) on the rocks so I can see them as I walk my labyrinth
And inspiring story. Thank you
Hi Barbara, what a wonderful story and a beautiful way to honor the call to pilgrimage. (Love the inclusion of the free speech steps chunk of rock in your labyrinth), and that you have chosen a special day every year to walk the labyrinth. If you don’t mind my asking, why December 27?
Hi Jessica,
Thanks for your comments, and yes, the Labyrinth. I’ve yet to walk the one at Grace Cathedral, but did the one at St, Paul’s in San Diego. As to Chartres, Dian and I planned our trip there on the day the Labyrinth was listed as available. But they’ve stopped allowing its use. Such a disappointment, even though being in the church itself was a deep and fulfilling pilgrimage in so many ways. The church is being restored and the work that has been done is glorious. Dian and I both brought candles home from the gift shop. I burn mine during morning writing.