Sunday, 22 July 2007 - Journeys and adventures

Dear God:

Today, I am thankful for journeys and adventures - all sorts and sizes.

I am always on some sort of personal journey or adventure. I continually embark on new ones, navigate older ones through the arduous middle miles where perseverance pays off and occasionally finish important ones of indeterminant age - some decades old, some only a few hours in the making.

I like, no, love David Whyte's poem, "The Journey." Robert Frost's "The Road Less Traveled," Psalm 91 and this poem comprise my current mantra for journeys and adventures.

Have you already read it and fallen in love with it, too? If so, I consider you a kindred spirit.

If not, I cite it here so you can read, absorb and ponder Whyte's simple words and profound message. Read them at your own pace. I recommend slowly (i.e., a poet's and philosopher's speed). Then, make them your own.

The Journey
By David Whyte
from The House of Belonging, copyright 1997

Above the mountains
the geese turn into
the light again

painting their
black silhouettes
on an open sky.

Sometimes everything
has to be
enscribed across
the heavens

so you can find
the one line
already written
inside you.

Sometimes it takes
a great sky
to find that

small, bright
and indescribable
wedge of freedom
in your own heart.

Sometimes with
the bones of the black
sticks left when the fire
has gone out

someone has written
something new
in the ashes
of your life.

You are not leaving
you are arriving.

For this blessing, I am grateful.

Amen.