Today is the Day. The suitcase is full to bursting and only just under the limit. I have not yet learned to travel light and so I am very unpilgrim like. "Take nothing for the journey" has not managed to impact on me yet.
However, my usual portable library has been pruned. I have been trying to do some preparatory reading beforehand. I was struck by these words which I read on Saturday on the way to an Amos Trust conference:
"Written by Geraldine Smyth, a Dominican nun in Northern Ireland, [the essay] argues that part of the point and power of what she calls 'a pilgrim journey' is to cross boundaries and to become a stranger."
This is taken from this year's ABC's Lent book:" Barefoot Disciple" by Stephen Cherry.
He goes on to describe how reconciliation is something we are engaged in all the time. Reconciliation means to be always observing or crossing boundaries of diversity and division. It is based on empathy and enables us to hear but also to own "a plurality of voices and identities"
If we take the risk of not going on a trip but a VISIT where we have to learn to develop openness, we run the risk of being with others whom we don't, and, possibly, can't understand. We can shrink back in fear and hide in our shell or we can try to be open and stay in dialogue with the other:
"Open engagement will allow us to adjust, accommodate and learn in response to realities which were previously beyond our experience."
I hope that I am travelling light enough, mentally and spiritually to do this, even if I am lugging a huge suitcase ( and computer) with me!
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