The pilgrim knows that each step on the road may prove to be the goal, yet the goal may prove to have been but one step on the road. This keeps the pilgrim open for surprise.
Br. David Steindl-Rast
Welcome to Day Two of Live Your Life As a Sacred Pilgrimage
You’ve set your intentions and gathered your guides, but you know from years of living that the journey you’ve planned will be different from the one that unfolds. Anyone who has walked a traditional miles-long pilgrimage knows that it’s essential to begin the journey with a map in one hand and curiosity, vulnerability, and wonder in the other. In navigating the pilgrimage of everyday life, these latter qualities can get constricted by ingrained habits and real demands.
To live life as a sacred pilgrimage is an invitation to courageously open your eyes, heart, and mind to wonder and surprise. A walking pilgrim on a long journey pauses for the exquisite flower or stunning vista, is curious about fellow travelers and different lands, and, perhaps most importantly, becomes attuned to new thoughts and insights that emerge from within, even when wholly unexpected. Br. David Steindl-Rast writes that “exposure is the essence of pilgrimage” — openness to the unforeseen and unimagined. How might you cultivate this sense of openness and curiosity for your own journey so that you’re equipped to notice and savor the daily delights, small gifts, and opportunities both within and all around?
Today’s Practice: Awaken to Gifts & Opportunities
Set the stage for today’s practice by watching this short video of Br. David Steindl-Rast in conversation with David Whyte. While yesterday’s practice invited you to create a compass for the journey ahead, this practice is a reminder to savor the gifts and opportunities that are available to you in each moment of your journey — to focus on the goal, yes, but not to the exclusion of the present.
Step One: Pause and Notice
- Set a timer for one minute.
- For a full minute, notice the treasures in your midst. Instead of thinking about what the day ahead may require or worrying about the past, notice the gifts of the present moment, however small they may seem.
- When the timer goes off, find a way to express your thanks for what you noticed, remembering that it could be otherwise.
Step Two: Be on the Lookout
- Commit to going through your day (or a few hours) with the heightened senses and curiosity of someone on a sacred pilgrimage. Your feet are on the trail, but your senses are alive to everything around you.
- Keep a list of any surprising gifts or delights that offer themselves to you — a conversation, the sunlight through the window, a new thought or stirring in your own heart.
- In the same way that you wouldn’t want to skip the unexpected grand vista at a bend in the road of a long pilgrimage, make time for each of these gifts, not rushing past.
Step Three: Reflect
At the end of the day, consider the following:
- When you attune your senses to life’s daily treasures, how do you experience the day differently? What internal shifts or insights emerge?
- When you’re set on your day — or a part of your life — going a certain way, is it possible that you’re missing some of the unexpected gifts and opportunities available to you right now?
- Living your life as a sacred pilgrimage, how can you hold your map and compass loosely enough that you remain open to the unexpected offerings, that you learn to trust your feet on the path?
Scroll to the bottom of the page (or click here) to find the Community Conversation space where we invite you to share your reflections about today’s practice.
Deepening Resource
In this 3-minute film by Reflections of Life, Ivan shares his passion for long walks and the way that they expand his perspective, saying of the world around him, “This is what is existing with me. All of a sudden the world is a bigger place.” Of course, not everyone is able to walk in this way, whether due to physical realities or life’s obligations, but Ivan’s message is a lovely reminder that a pilgrimage is about each moment, not just a destination. Enjoy the stunning vistas and Ivan’s joy in the moment-to-moment experience of his journeys.
Walk Your Way to Clarity: The Power of Meditative Movement by Reflections of Life
Research Highlight
As we make the sacred pilgrimage of our own lives, it matters to take our eyes off the horizon, notice the blessings we’re offered right now, and give thanks. Dr. Robert Emmons sums up a quarter-century of groundbreaking gratitude research with the catchy acronym, ARC. He reports that dozens of studies have now come to the same three conclusions: Gratitude AMPLIFIES the good. When we pause to notice and give thanks, we savor the experience even more. Gratitude RESCUES us from negativity bias, interrupting our complaints about the small things. And finally, gratitude CONNECTS. It mends the social fabric and connects us to one another.
Photo by George Hiles
I want my life to be a pilgrimage…not just a journey. I loved Brother David’s story with David Whyte.
For Day 2, I remain open to to the unexpected by reminding myself that all is impermanent, quickly passing.
What helps me learn to trust: I am a spiritual Being having a physical experience. It’s all OK.
Doing the exercise of looking around me for one minute, I realized everywhere I look here in my living room are beautiful gifts such as paintings, wreaths, wall hangings, etc., and photos of dear friends and family members. Stopping shows me how much I am loved. I am grateful for this revelation.
…so we are all sitting in front of this amazing thing…our computers!…and we are sharing via this other miracle – the internet…and I wil probablyy never actually “meet” Br. David but I can see and hear him and feel that I know him!…and he is not the only wisdom teacher I “know” because of our ways of communication…miracles indeed! …and I am sitting in front of my computer in a room that holds memories, companions(at the moment my 3 doggos) and so much of ME! …and I am grateful for all that I can see, hear, know – just in this small space…what will I “know” todaywhen I venture out?? Can’t wait!!
…and I came back just to say…I have little notepad in hand ! ready to record small things!
I loved the deepening resource. One of the experiences in life that most enlivens me is to walk/hike in the mountains. Watching the video brought me so much joy and connection with another who felt the same. Today I noticed transitions and thresholds as moments to savor as steps on this pilgrimage.
I set clear intentions at the start to enhance my connections with people, to listen better to ‘get what others are saying’, and to frame my actions and words to deliver more real value in terms of any suggestions or answers I might give.
I have already had two miracles. today A client of mine did not understand some information I provided to them in a prior email I had included some explanatory notes introductions about the information in my initial email, so my initial response was to point out that the information was already in their material. And then the lights went on for me. I wrote back to my client that I now see that I have to make the information more prominent and clear to the reader. I ‘took on’ the obligation/opportunity to be more expansive. It was a breakthrough.
I also just finished lunch with a Franciscan friar about marketing and financial challenges for his parish. I listed very intently to what he had to say, and I offered some suggestions. We got deeper and deeper into the subject, and he/we had some breakthrough ideas arise from the conversation. At the end of lunch, he told me that he really felt ‘heard’ as we explored different ideas. This was pure ‘gold’ to me, that he actually told me that he really felt heard.
Both experiences are a direct result of my inquiries and intention in taking this pilgrimage over the past two days.
I have a lot to be thankful for this evening!
I loved the distinction between a journey and a pilgrimage that Br. David made in his conversation with David Whyte. Growing up in the West (culturally) and in a household where accomplishments and “making something of yourself” were emphasized, it never occurred to me that my life is not a journey as much as a sacred pilgrimage, where every step is its own goal and its own reward.
If I learn nothing else from this Pathway (and I’m sure I will, as we’re only on Day 2!), this insight alone is transformative. It is causing me to shift my perspective from “there” (some amorphous goal or future state) to the awe, wonder, and gratefulness of being “here, now.” I had heard and read about the value of being present in the moment, of course. But for some reason Br. David’s clear distinction in that video clip really brought it home for me.
It occurs to me that that to simply be able to participate in this contemplative practice as a community suggests that we (in this virtual retreat) are enjoying a rather wondrous circumstance. Around the world, so many are living with famine, war, disease, and myriad forms of social oppression. I have done nothing that warrants the grace I am receiving this moment: to be safe and healthy enough to “stop, look, and go”. Of course, I am not suggesting that there is not suffering and hardship among our community, but simply to be exposed to these teachings and practices is already a great blessing for us all. So, in my practice to today, I will consider my connection to all peoples and all the Earth. I will do my best to remember to nourish this connection through kindness and openness with every step on this pilgrimage……
The treasures of today were already several. The gift of a kind reply by someone dear to me; meeting a dear friend for lunch, sharing warm contact with each other, a funny joke where I could identify some of my fixed mind patterns and we both could laugh about; cleaning the windows at this beautiful sunny day, enjoying the beauty when it was done.
I am happy and grateful today for the many gifts received, which I do not take for granted at all. I feel recovering from a heavy cold which is really a gift when you feel your energy coming back and to be able to experience the day as described; and even ahead my meditation group will arrive soon, so that even at the evening, we will share meaningful and also relaxing time together. Really every moment might bring surprise, joyful encounter. To be kind nd honest with myself and others and curious enough keeps me open to unexpected offerings, so that trust may setttle again. Thank you for this day, and this second day of this pilgrimage.
I am always moved and inspired by the videos of people in extraordinary places finding beauty, stillness and awe I wonder if there is a video of someone like me not climbing a mountain, or walking in Ireland or somewhere extraordinary but rather who gets out of bed in their ordinary house opening to what the day will bring and maybe even not being ready to find that awe and doing something like making breakfast with gratitude and awe for what is before them. Or finding a tree in their front yard to watch as the seasons change. As I look at where I am not in my life, it is these moments when I can be forgetful and miss what is right here in front of me.
I find inspiration from those ordinary moments that others share with me. It helps me remember that it is all right here.
I love your question, Gracia!
Here’s a video we’ve shared elsewhere but not in this Pathway. I think it speaks to what you’re asking. Let me know if it resonates!
https://grateful.org/resource/to-be-in-awe/
Thank you very much for posting this beautiful video.
Thank you Sheryl for posting this…so inspiring!
On this second day of the pilgrimage, I was beginning to fall into old patterns. Oh, I will do this one thing then I will open the email or whatever distraction my mind can conjure up for me. I grew up with a way I was taught to pray and follow the path to the sacred. It hasn’t served me but it is heavily ingrained in my mind but not my heart. The richness of what is offered here has been a longing for some time. In prayer one day, I was reminded that this will be hard, it will feel wrong. Do it anyway.
That is my mantra for this pilgrimage. To follow the path to staying on the road but also being willing to follow a trail that leads to a path that just might be the one that will offer me where my heart is leading me.