This experience with Grace helped me to name the state of being "in sync" with someone, or even something. It can just be the way it is with someone and usually that person becomes one of our dearest friends or partners. Sometimes, you have to create it with someone, or re-create it. Grace and I are usually very in sync with each other. Yet, given my 5 week absence from her, we have to cultivate our in-syncness again. Nothing wrong, but very important to recognize and honor that my 9 year old daughter has had to learn how to be okay with me around her, calibrating her rhythm, her energy, her being. And so our need to simply spend time together, focused on each other and our relationship, and to get back in sync.
In sync. Dictionary.com defines sync as "harmony or harmonious relationship." It feels good to be in sync with others - these are the people whom I am drawn to and want to be with.
Who are you in sync with? Who are you not?
Going away for 5 weeks gives me the opportunity to confront this. I notice that it can be something I take for granted, sometimes something I long for with someone but can't quite seem to find; at other times may have with someone and then lose it, and am then not sure how to get it back.
As I reflect on this, being in syncness is something I spend a lot of time on, and is one of my prime motivators. Hmm...perhaps we all do. Perhaps not. It seems that being in relationship is so important and necessary for all of us.
While I walked on the Camino, I felt very in sync with myself. Something in the very act and process of walking supports and connects me so that I experience an in-syncness that is comfortable, harmonious, and nourishing, both on a physical and a soul level. I realize that I crave this feeling. I long to walk for hours every day. I love to walk for hours every day. While there are certain terrains and environments that I prefer, I also am happy to just walk. On the Camino, I loved the wide open meseta as much as I loved the rolling green hills of Galicia. Perhaps each occurred at exactly the right time for me, and part of walking is the acceptance of transition and change, even as reflected in the environment around you.
When I walk, I move at a speed that is natural and aligned with my body. I move only as fast as my body can move. I could run, but there is something about the speed of walking that feels inherently "right" for me. The contrast of this is when I fly in an airplane. My body is moving so fast with the help of another vehicle, and I cannot keep up with it. So I arrive at my destination and I have to come back into my body. You then add time on top of that and you have jet lag! Part of the in-syncness for me in walking is that I move with my body and stay connected. For me, walking is connecting and deepening. I actually deepen my connection with my Self and my body. I do not have to re-connect when I am done walking at the end of the day. The oppposite is true - I am more connected and in sync with myself.
~ A true pilgrim is one who takes the lessons gained on pilgrimage and applies them to their lives when they return. ~
How do I bring home this deep rooted in-syncness? How do I continue to cultivate it? How do I be the pilgrim at home? How do I bring the essence of pilgrim into my life at home?
I walk.
I just realized that for me, a pilgrim is one who walks/moves to re-align, re-cognize, and re-connect with the truth, core, and essence of oneself. As we walk, we cultivate a very real experience of being in sync with ourselves, our Self, our Soul, God, the Divine. We get up, we walk; we eat, we walk; we share with others, we walk; we take care of our bodies, we walk; we sleep, we walk.
Every day I must walk. I may not get to walk for 6 or 8 hours. No matter. I must walk. I must allow myself to walk, no matter what.
How is that I can walk for hours a day on the Camino, and then I come home and can forget to walk everyday? The responsibilities of life at home; the more structured time; money; tending to others, the home, work - I allow all of this to call me away from walking, from myself.
Walking to re-align, re-cognize, and re-connect with the truth, core, and essence of oneself is what makes me a pilgrim, every day, no matter where I walk or for how long.
So I make this commitment right here and right now. Every day I walk as a pilgrim. Every day. No matter what. I walk with the intention to be in sync with mySelf. I have my boots, my walking sticks, my back pack with rain and snow gear, and most especially my pilgrim heart with me at all times, so that no matter where I am, I am prepared, ready and willing to walk.
Suseya!
Sahara
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