afternoon of journaling or organizing trip photos, suggests Haupert. “Resist the urge to check emails the minute the plane touches down or start planning the next trip. Take time to remember the journey and see your home turf with fresh eyes,” adds Cousineau. The returned pilgrim has a responsibility to memorialize the journey, an ancient tradition of Judeo-Christian and Islamic faiths, advises Cousineau. The San Francisco writer traveled with a group on foot from Louisville, Kentucky, to Thomas Merton’s Abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemani, near Bardstown, Kentucky, to celebrate the legacy of Merton and Mahatma Gandhi. One of the women inked a footprint from each of 100-plus travelers, sewing them into a quilt to commemorate the pilgrimage. Chronicling the journey can be as simple as a dinner party with friends to share what we have learned, says Cousineau, but suggests that travelers engage attendees to also contribute their own stories and reflections. “We have a choice upon returning; do nothing and just let that experience fade or own it for ourselves,” concurs Boyle. “It’s incumbent to extract the meaning of our experiences and find a way to express them, whether through a photo series, article, painting or video. The traveler’s ‘third act’ of creativity after preparation and execution is how we process change.”
Aleksandr Markin/Shutterstock.com
Dmitry Molchanov/Shutterstock.com
inspiration
SOUL SHINE by Marianne Williamson
O
ur deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, “Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?” Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do.
We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others. From A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of A Course in Miracles by Marianne Williamson.
Connect with freelance writer April Thompson, in Washington, D.C., at AprilWrites.com. natural awakenings
October 2017
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