THE ORDINARY PILGRIM MANIFESTO
An ordinary pilgrim is someone on an intentional journey beyond the borders of her understanding and experience.
She sets out without knowing the final destination, but with desire and curiosity as her companions - the pull of her soul’s longing propelling her forward on the path.
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She doesn’t rush, there is no panic, but she pays attention, allows her wonder to guide her along new paths, trusts that her soul will find a good way.
She looks for ancient ways, stops to sit at the feet of the elders, and listens to the wisdom of the Land.
She is learning to travel light, slowly giving up and putting down the burdens that were never hers to carry, the maps given to her by those who wanted her to travel one path only: theirs.
She is her body. She listens to her limbs and her lungs and honours their needs and desires. She rests often, knowing it to be an essential part of the journey.
She chooses her travel companions carefully but open-heartedly, willing to welcome difference and strangeness, willing also to recognise and befriend the stranger within herself. She is comfortable with solitude and the gentle companionship of her own soul.
She knows that the Way might not look dramatic or impressive, that God is often to be found in the small, the simple and the ordinary. She knows, too, that she is not called to save the world, only to make her own soul available for saving, and in doing so, join the cosmic dance of reconciliation.
She seeks out prophets along the way who speak with God’s own voice, with poetry and lament, vision and justice. She is willing to interrogate her own heart for the lies it has believed and the privileges it has hotly defended.
She knows she is competent and worthy to travel this path. She walks with head high and fists unclenched. She is radiant, and every step is sacred because she is sacred and the ground she walks upon is sacred.
Though she does not know where the journey will end, she does not panic, is not anxious, for she knows she is making the way by walking and she suspects the final destination is no more and no less than her true divine self.
She doesn’t anxiously search for God because she trusts that the Divine is all around her and within her, knows that she will never be abandoned or forsaken, seeks only to awaken each moment to the surprising presence of Christ in all things.
So she journeys with a prayer on her lips, that her heart and body and soul might recognise God and receive Her Love.