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.
As you travel toward the true north that you named on the first day of the practice, how are you also marking the trail for others? What gifts are you sharing along the way? What knowledge, creativity, or compassion? What resources or blessings? In what ways do your actions contribute to a sense of safety and belonging to those around you and those who will follow?
Become Present
Allow this short vignette, Gate 4-A, by the poet Naomi Shihab Nye to evoke the delight and poignancy of helping a fellow traveler on their journey. Take a few moments to recall a time when you’ve offered or received such loving care to or from a stranger.
Practice and Reflect
For a pilgrim on foot, “Nothing,” writes David Williams in Cairns: Messengers in 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. A more elaborate cairn might take the form of 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.
- Create a Cairn of Your Own: You can do this physically, stacking small stones, or draw your cairn on a piece of paper. Begin by revisiting what you wrote as your intention and true north on day one of the practice. Visualize yourself traveling toward those hopes, then coming across cairns marking the trail. What guidance, inspiration, or offering will you add? What do you want to leave for other seekers? Over the course of your life, how do you hope to light the way for others? How will you share your wisdom and lessons learned? For each stone that you add to your small cairn or sketch, name or write what you hope to leave as guideposts for others.
- Shine Light on Someone’s Path Today: Using Post-Its, paper, text messages, email, etc., commit to sharing five notes of inspiration or gratitude. Shine light for others throughout the day, whether in your home, on errands, at work, or virtually. Your words may be exactly the stone on the cairn that a fellow traveler needs.
- At the end of the day, take time to reflect on this question: In what ways is your own journey enriched when you contribute to the journey of those around you?
Share
Please share your reflections below. What are you adding to the cairns along life’s path? What notes of inspiration or gratitude did you share with others? How is your own journey enhanced when you shine your light for others?
Deepening Resource
In The Privilege of Sharing Abundance, Greta Matos describes the deep joy of being a “trail angel” and also the gift of being on the receiving end of such caretakers. 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 this delightful essay.
Photo by Thomas Dils
When I think of cairns – I see the rocks and I think legacy. As I am in my life on a pilgrimage I wonder what will someone see of my cairns that might have them consider how they pilgrimage through life. Recently I finished reading the book Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer and as I reflected on what her intent might have been I wondered on my response. How might I choose to act and interact with the world around me both land, water, air, and earth so that when others see my footprints they know that I was thinking about those who walked the same trail after me. For as long as I can remember, I have stood up for those who could not stand up for themselves or itself. When I was in middle school there were two things of concern to me, the air pollution being caused by the smoke stacks I would see every summer as my family drove to and from Michigan and Minnesota. You see in the towns along the southern part of Lake Michigan there were no regulations at the time to require factories to make sure the air leaving their smokestacks was healthy. So I began writing letters and speaking up about air scrubbers. Then I learned that Lake Erie was mostly so polluted you could not even dip your toes in it without the potential for getting sick. Yes, I started a letter writing campaign and educating those I knew. The last one I remember really making an effort to save was the Boundary Waters in upper Minnesota. You see there were some that wanted to be able to bring their jet skis and motor boats on the water to play. It had always been a canoe or manual powered body of water protected in Canada as was a part of the indigenous peoples lands. SO yes, I began to share this and write letters and so on. I consider each of these along the lines of the Trail Angel that was mentioned by Greta’s story from the standpoint of protecting our natural resources so that we can protect the planet from our inconsiderate actions. As I got older I have continued to speak up for protecting our natural resources AND I have added humanity to this as well. I have walked beside and been a Trail Angel for homeless youth and young adults, for abused teens, and adults. Then in 2021 I was able to walk away from jobs that were about someone else’s bottom line in order to help others find their passion and voice to live their best life. WHY? In order to be on a pilgrimage in my life to walk beside, behind, and ahead of others so we can learn what it means to be grateful, kind, and loving.
During this pilgrimage I was reminded of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s statement-“Life is a journey not a destination.” This is a challenging mindset shift. When I first contemplated potential cairns for my north compass intentions, I automatically listed steps to reach each “destination”. This logical scripting of my life – with goals, objectives, and action steps – has been my comfort-zone. Experiences in the past few years, and in particular this last year, has unequivocally shown me the significant limitations of this logical mindset – I existed but didn’t live – I survived but didn’t thrive – I ruminated on the past but didn’t live the present – I guarded a fixed mindset but didn’t embrace a growth mindset . . .
It is essential that as I start my journey of my life’s north compass intentions that I embrace them fully with a balanced and adaptive mindset of my heart, mind, and soul. It is only by being in the present, being observant of and receptive to the cairns that I am fortunate enough to discover along the way that I can truly and fully experience the journeys before me.
Cairns can provide guidance through insights, respite, recovery, and sustenance offered by others through their life experiences. Some cairns are in process by individuals whom I will meet on my journey – we learn and share symbiotically and dynamically. Some cairns are built- serving as resources – the words – videos-music (such as this incredible pilgrimage) others have generously shared. And some cairns are future ones which I hope to build out of the amalgamation of this pilgrimage which may be of service to others.
It is through connections with others that we truly live life dynamically – learning from one another, sharing sorrows and joys, exploring and discovering new perspectives and experiences. . . I have immeasurably benefited from such connections in the past and in the present (when I was attentive/ pro-actively listening). I am committed to recognizing, gathering, connecting, and internalizing, all of life’s experiences with a growth mindset as I begin my journey.
Today I really enjoyed sending notes of gratitude to my two daughters, and two good friends. I shared an inspiring article with another dear friend. I felt especially blessed by my daughters’ reactions.
One has been a solid support for me over several difficult years and I expressed my gratitude for that, again. The other daughter has been distant for several years, but visited me in December and we seem to have begun a new phase. I expressed my gratitude that we are now on a different trajectory in our relationship. She replied almost immediately with her happiness over it as well.
It felt so worthwhile to make these special efforts.
The piece about cairns is enlightening because I thought they were just for beauty. In revisiting initial hopes, I believe that I’m currently doing just that because while healing from serious fractures and surgery, I had the desire to just draw. After months of recovery with therapy, I joined a drawing class for seniors and attend it once weekly at adult school. I learned to walk again. I have joy being with people of like mind who want the comfort of being with other human beings needing comfort with creativity. I am an octogenarian with years of life’s experiences, many of which were well beyond going to a simple drawing class. But this is where I am today and am so grateful to be doing so. Many people my age do not recover from such serious fractures. So I will continue my true north and see what follows. Today I gave thanks to Yes2Next, a mother and daughter duo on YouTube who provide exercises that I need, a shoe repairman who did a great a job stretching one shoe to fit more comfortably, and a conversation with him about the beautiful snow on the Sierra foothills, at TJ’s, a clerk who seriously asked about my visit to the shoe repair shop (seriously) and a woman who graciously took my shopping cart back to the store, and finally, I shared a recipe with a friend thru email. A new twist of sharing has come from this project and that is the courage to share wisdom and experience on social media not only from my long 80+ years of life but from 40 years of higher education that I got out of suffering and endurance for knowledge in life and truth. The path continues with Grace.
Once again, I am humbled and grateful for your exquisite preparation of this Sacred Pilgrimage. The prompt set my intention for the day. I envisioned myself going forth with post-it notes! However, not a post-it note did I write. And yet, in a mysterious way, I walked out of my home like a Shepherd and followed an invisible path toward my True North: A Heart as Wide as the World. I included in my True North, the following quote by Spring Washam: Listen to your heart and trust the direction you are being pulled. Something inside you already knows what to do.
As the day unfolded, I posted a message on a Facebook page about a friend’s death, listened to a neighbor talk about the death of his 52 year old son, learned about the illness of my grandson from his mother (Roseola – not life-threatening but very serious), listened to a friend about her relationship struggle, sent a reply email of encouragement to another friend, and blessed the meeting of two dear friends, one of whom is in skilled nursing care.
My journey is extricably interwoven with the journey of all. The Light I shine is reflected back to me and the Light of others goes directly to my soul. Perhaps I leave Light in the form of encouragement, love, deep listening, kindness, and generous attention. My hope is to be blessed and to be a blessing.
Grateful.
It is my deep hope and aspiration to have the poems I write be “cairns” that mark a path of pilgrimage through life ….. i share them with a small group of spiritual friends and in the classes I offer, letting them mark what have been for me moments of learning and discovery that hopefully resonate for others too.