Pilgrimage (Pt. 3)

We walked today. I know. It’s so surprising. We walked and talked and silenced and sang and walked some more.

A pilgrimage is a weird event. I always imagined it being regal and momentus (a bit pompous as well) but really it’s just people intentionally walking and thinking about life and their relationship with God. It’s nothing over the top or especially remarkable in and of itself.

We were promoted to think about landscape today. Both internal and external. Trust me, Scotland is underplayed. It’s gorgeous. My phone is not letting me upload pictures via WordPress at the moment, but you can trust me on this one. St. Cutherbert’s way is beautiful. I actually tired of saying beautiful but it is such a vapid meaningless word – more a category than a descriptor. Anyways, I digress.

As we walking and talked and thought, I tried to focus on the landscape. It was challenging and, personally, it felt forced for me to incorporate my surroundings into an understanding of my soul. But, I was absolutely overwhelmed by the magnificence of the minute detail (a robin’s egg with embryonic fluid still in it and beautiful tiny bluebells) and the glorious, ever changing, overarching landscape. It was humbling to realize the greatness of God that is manifest in his creation. Just the diversity and color and cohesion of it all. It really seizes my attention and creates a yearning in my soul for a better understanding of God.

I am realizing that a contemplative journey is really challenging for a verbal processor like myself. My best thinking is done through words (verbally and written) rather than thoughts. My most meaningful moments had actually occurred during breaks or in the evenings when I can write down my thoughts or talk about them with others.

Also, just for clarification, pilgrimages can be fun too. There is a lot of laughter and fun that goes on when you’re trekking through the unknowns.

Here are some of my random thoughts that I wrote down while hiking today (yes, I know hiking and looking at my phone is stupid but there’s no other way):

Wow. That mountain was high yesterday 

Dogs everywhere

Old people only get to walk a few hours everyday – this is awalking country

Visitors are welcome to the golf club – that’s a new sight

Peace in silence 

Motto 1: no injuries 

Motto 2: if you see something say something (in reference to signage)

Motto 3: get high on faith 

Gods beauty in nature. Gods work in me. 

Birds are more quiet today

Beauty in detail. 

Half of a robins egg with the embryonic fluid still partially in it 

Tiny pine cones 

Moments of tree arches and shaded walking

I’m made just warm enough by walking 

Warm tea in my belly – 3 teacups full 

Manifestation of God’s detail and awareness of design  

We have an inability to claim something as own in the wild of nature 

Cultivated beauty on my right (pastures)

Untamed and untamable Beaty on my left (river Tweed)

Footsteps are temporary – even in concrete 

We cannot claim even where we step or, if we do, we are just claiming the land claimed by the hundreds and thousands before us 

Birds building nests in sides of the river 

Hobbit house on the top of a wildflower covered hill

Beauty in symmetry 

Waking sticks are really annoying to walk behind 

Herons are so restful – they just sit and look and stand and swallow 

Midday prayers in front of a 1000 church devoted to st. Cuthbert

Phil 2:1-11

Humility is hard.

Pilgrimage is humility

I am called to live in service out of love which is much easier said than done

In the church, we often talk about how we are made perfect in Christ which I always mistakenly equated with equality with Christ and God. But v 1 of Philippians says that Jesus did not consider equality with God something to be grasped or seized but something not worth striving after or claiming as his own though we was the most worthy. Humbling.

Beatiful really is a pointless word ton use to describe anything. It is really more of a category than a descriptor.

Paths are all worn down by the feet before us but the individual footprints blend together. We are one in Christ

Bugs like to fly into my mouth as we walk. Maybe I talk too much.

Sheep herding. Difficult concept to explain. But successfully got a lost lamb back in its own.

I love the little steps over the fences

B & B’s are the best