Modern Pilgrims

When I decided to take all of last week off, instead of just 2 days for motorcycle training, I knew that I was getting tired and grouchy.  By mid-June, I knew it would be a good day to take some additional time to rest and recharge.

I imagined returning to work refreshed and revitalized. 

Yesterday, I found myself thinking of pilgrimage.  Why would I be thinking about a long hike with only sporadic human interaction?  Hadn't I just been on vacation?

Over at my theology blog, I wrote this post pondering pilgrimage.  Chaucer is perhaps the most famous to chronicle the various reasons people go on pilgrimage--few of them are spiritual.

If I was a character in Chaucer's sprawling work, what kind of pilgrim would I be?  I would not be the floozy-boozy broad.  I would be that sturdy girl, the one who got us out of a jam.  That's the way I like to see myself.  I could also see Chaucer painting me as the judgmental type, the one who wants to accept all the pilgrims where they are, while wondering why they aren't more spiritually evolved.

Today and tomorrow are days of lots of meetings.  In the past, I've gotten a poem or two out of these days.  Please let me have that kind of inspiration today.

Perhaps I will keep myself engaged by looking around the room--if we were Chaucer's pilgrims, who would we be?

Yesterday, as I got to school and felt discouraged about the many decisions that will be impacting us in the next 6 months, I comforted myself by recasting the despair.  I told myself, "You don't have to solve everything today.  You are in a time of discernment.  All you have to do is stay open."

Today and tomorrow, I will hang onto the words of my wiser self.  And perhaps I'll have some Chaucerian fun along the way.