This summer I led over 100 individuals on pilgrimage to Alaska, Nova Scotia and my own city of New Haven. I can say that my hope each summer to see individual lives experience personal transformation is never disappointed. Each year I have the privilege of working with an amazing travel company my friend Shawn Small launched 10 years ago. His company is called Wonder Voyage. They are dedicated to providing unique, customized pilgrimages around the world. Working with Wonder Voyage I enjoy seeing people captured with a true sense of wonder. I love helping people learn how to live in the moment, and teaching them how to encounter a spiritual moment that invades their heart and profoundly alters their perceptions. With each spiritual encounter woven between those moments of wonder, individual walls come down and life rhythms begin to change so that life starts to appear new and fresh again. This summer of pilgrimage was truly filled with wonder.
The reason I invest my life leading others on a pilgrimage is captured in stories. I hear dozens of stories from those who travel with me. Those stories become, portraits of transformation. This summer I took Rev. Jessica Hitchcock from St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, Bethesda Maryland to Nova Scotia. Shortly after returning home she shared this with her parish. “Last Tuesday, the St Luke’s pilgrims arrived home safely. Tired, itchy, smelly, and changed. Our time in Nova Scotia changed us, changed us as individuals and changed us as a community. We can tell you what we did and share pictures of what we saw, but all that happened in our hearts and souls – words will fail us.” She went on to say, “We learned to look for the wonderful during our time in Nova Scotia. We taught our eyes and hearts to keep an eye out for those sudden moments of overwhelming peace or quiet joy. We began to recognize the times that God draws extra close.”
That is what pilgrimage is for. Pilgrimage is a time to get out of our stuck pattern of jumping from one thing to another, doing the task in front of us while planning and preparing for the task ahead. Pilgrimage shows us what it is like to be in the moment. It teaches us to be present and aware. It helps us see all the many times God shows up in our lives.
Learning how to see with new eyes can bring perspective. Life can be filled with surprise and meaning when we learn to look at things in new ways. While in Alaska, we saw Bald Eagles, black bears from afar, and sea lions frolicking in the water. But one pilgrim this summer had a rainbow knock on her window. Rev. Gini Gerbasi, from Christ Church Parish in Maryland, told this story of an encounter with a rainbow. Gini wrote, “It’s been raining pretty much the whole time we’ve been here. Our first day was a mix – bursts of sun, drenching downpours, and gentle misting rain – God’s weather iPod stuck on ‘shuffle.’ ‘Typical Juneau summer’ we heard, but we were not concerned. We had gear; we had clean, dry clothes. It was Alaska, we were finally here after years of preparation, and we were not made of sugar, as my grandmother used to say. That was Monday. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday it poured.”
She went on to say, “I went to bed Friday night knowing that God had helped us find light and warmth and joy even in those cold, wet days together. It seemed enough – more than enough really – it was everything I had hoped for our time together. This morning God literally smiled on us, and the sun rose at 3:00 a.m., pushing aside the cloud cover and filling the bay with its warm light.”
At 5:30, Winnie looked out, hearing something none of the rest of us heard. “A rainbow knocked on my window,” she said simply. “Good Lord, we don’t deserve this. But God keeps knocking.”
Perspective makes room in our hearts to find what is often lost. Another year of leading pilgrims to wonderful places, and returning home tired yet filled with new strength and hope. God points to that area of human experience where in one way or another man comes upon mystery as a summons to pilgrimage. More travel awaits, and you are always welcome to join me on the road less traveled.
