Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder. Help someone’s soul heal. Walk out of your house like a shepherd.
Rumi
Welcome to Day Four of Live Your Life As a Sacred Pilgrimage
The most famous sacred pilgrimages around the world beckon thousands, even millions, of seekers each year. Every pilgrim, whether making a solo journey or traveling with others, is following a pathway created and maintained by fellow travelers; by those who have made the trip before; and by those who offer food, shelter, and care along the way. Such a pilgrimage wouldn’t be possible without this collective wayfinding.
For a pilgrim on foot, “Nothing,” writes David Williams in Cairns: Messengers of Stone, “is more reassuring than finding a cairn” — a stack of stones that marks the way. It might be as simple as five or six stones placed at a critical junction that sends travelers in the right direction or as elaborate as an immovable pile of stones that not only marks the route but also holds spiritual significance or a reserve of food. The beauty of the cairn is that it is built and maintained by the collective over decades or centuries. As travelers, we receive this navigational gift from people we will never know, and we add our offering — perhaps just one more stone atop the marker — as an act of care for those who will follow. In this way, the cairn becomes a powerful symbol of our belonging to one another.
As you travel toward the true north that you named on the first day of the Pathway, today’s practice is an invitation to give thanks for those who have marked the trail for you and to consider your contributions to those who will follow. As backpacker Maggie Slepian writes, cairns are “a silent way of lending a hand to the people who come after us along the trail” — a way of lighting the path for others.
Today’s Practice: Look Back, Light Forward
Set the stage for today’ practice by watching the trailer for Finding Your Roots, the award-winning PBS series hosted by Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates, which unearths the ancestral genealogy of well-known people. While biological ancestors are certainly not the only ones who have marked the path for us, this short video is a powerful, emotional reminder that the pilgrimage of our individual lives is made possible by our forebears — and that how we live our lives today can light the path for someone else, even for people we will never know.
Step One: Visualize & Give Thanks
Begin by revisiting what you wrote as your intention and true north on day one of the Pathway.
- Visualize yourself courageously navigating all of the challenges, decisions, and opportunities along your path and the discovery of a carefully-tended cairn marking your trail.
- Take a moment to give thanks for those who have come before you and whose lives made your journey possible — those who have left markers to help you find your way.
Step Two: Consider Your Offering
After giving thanks, take a moment to consider what you hope your contribution will be to those who will come after you — those you know and those you will never meet. Consider the following questions:
- Over the course of your life, how do you want to help light the way for others? How are you courageously sharing your knowledge, creativity, or compassion? Your resources, blessings, or lessons learned?
- Make a list of what guidance, inspiration, or offering you want to leave for other seekers.
Step Two: Shine Light on Someone’s Path
To shine light for others throughout today — whether in your home, on errands, at work, or virtually — try the following delightful action:
- Using Post-Its, paper, text messages, email, etc., share five notes of inspiration or gratitude today that may help light the way for someone else. Think of these as five stones you’ve added to the cairn that marks the trail.
Step Four: Reflect
At the end of the day, take time to reflect on the following:
- In what ways do your actions contribute to a sense of safety and belonging to those around you and those who will follow?
- In what ways is your own journey enriched when you contribute to the journey of those around you?
- How is lighting the path for others an expression of gratefulness?
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 short essay, Greta Matos describes the deep joy of being a “trail angel” and also the gift of being on the receiving end of such angels. She writes: “We are all, in some way, pilgrims on a journey as we live out our lives. Sometimes we’re traveling in a literal sense, but most of the time, most of us are simply traveling through the expanse of our individual lives. If we pay attention, and we leave the light on, we may be lucky enough to receive a fellow pilgrim and offer them a few simple gifts to make their journey a little more comfortable, their bellies a little more full, and their spirits a little higher.” Enjoy!
The Privilege of Sharing Abundance by Greta Matos
Research Highlight
Drs. David DeSteno and Shanyu Kates at Northeastern University have shown that gratitude as an emotional state increases care for the collective good over the individual. They constructed a game that looked at how much people would take for themselves compared to how much they would leave for others. Those who experienced gratitude as an emotional state, not just a one-off or momentary experience, were more focused on the collective good than those who were either emotionally neutral and even emotionally happy. They took less and left more for others.
One Key to Combatting the Tragedy of the Commons: Gratitude, Rebecca Randall
Photo by Thomas Dils
I guess that a sense of safety and belonging for others might be sensed because of my being present to them, listening, being there in need. May be as well through sharing about my own experiences when they might be of support for others which I do at the “Daily question´s area! since many years, courageously sometimes, I guess. I am deeply grateful for the anchestors, of family who conveyed what has been the basis and developed opportunities of my life and who have passed on the thread of life, as well as the anchestors of my chosen family, who conveyed all their wisdom in order to help us all onward. the cairn carefully designed for me I would guess is the invitation to really share stories about experiences and ideas and I will offer my little part of what I might be able to contribute. It is not easy for me, not at all, as I am used to be rather withdrawn, but I see the signs that it could be of support for all concerned and an experience also in the sense of trust to open up and belonging. I was blessed with having experienced wisdom of the ones who came before, compassion, tender care when needed most, honesty, deep shared sadness and in the same time deep trust in the good outcome of things, Joy, Light and Love, all which I am grateful to possibly pass forward to other kindred hearts of what has been given to me. Thank you all dearly, and thank you, life.
I am grateful for the lesson about cairns. As I drive in my residential neighborhood to the grocery store, I pass a center divide with 2 cairns. They warm my heart. I’ve started a small cairn in a big pot on my patio because of their spiritual nature.
Today, my daughter-in-law and her mother came to my home for coffee and conversation. My daughter-in-law lives in France and is visiting here for a few weeks. She is quite familiar with pilgrimages having lived alongside one of the paths across France to The Way of Saint James in Spain. Both she and my son helped many travelers in their destiny and I find her with a lovely disposition. She inspires me.
Last year was very difficult both physically and mentally I took refuge in my home. I didn’t socialize. Not wishing to elaborate, I will just say that I began to feel better toward year’s end. I’m finding more courage and stamina . Having coffee with my daughter-in-law and her mom in my home added to my positive attitude, social life, and caring. There is room for imagination and pilgrimage!
I’ve been encouraged to begin a Substack feed, describing my own pilgrimage (thus far), which includes a long-running relationship with depression. In part due to today’s Pathway lesson, I decided to pull the trigger and post my first article. This initial post describes why I’m motivated to write anything at all about my personal experience. I’ll share the link here. May all of us on this pilgrimage experience peace and the joy of being alive!
https://open.substack.com/pub/chriskenny3lqs/p/motivation?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
Thank you. May you have peace and joy too.
OK guys…I’m struggling…I don’t like the idea of moving rocks from their “place” to make cairns – if they were meant to move…perhaps they would have feet? they teach us stillness and waiting…I have never been interested in my ancestry – if others are…go for it! – the present moment overshadows all that came before me…and as far as thru hiking – my sister lived very near the Appalachian trail – less than 1/2 mile – she said hikers were rude, entitled and left trash…I’m sure others are not like this – her perception – and her experience!
None of this is to say we aren’t enriched by being with and helping others on their “pilgrimages”…our relationship to all is just that…all…we need to grow, participate and leave all better…
(if I think of more I’ll edit)
…and have I been taught and enriched…SO many teachers, guides, friends…the cosmos!
Today’s practice spoke directly to the true North I wrote on the first day of this pilgrimage, which is: My essential hope for the next phase of my life is to fully LIVE with purpose and intention. To be a light and a guide for others while living in intense joy and fulfillment. As usual, Rumi’s words like the one posted on today’s practice speak direclty to this.
Over the course of my life I have lit the way for others by being resilient and commited to anything I set my mind to do, even when sometimes (quite often) I ‘fail’ – but perhaps this is not the right word because even when the outcome might not look like it was envisioned, at least the effort was made to do it, and that in and of itself is worth while.
This is what I would like to leave as guidance for others: my writings on musings of inspiration and lived experience and my crocheted creations which also come form the same well of inspiration.