The Pilgrimage (VOL. 3, NO. 8)

Here are a few things I’m sharing this month:

1. Question I’m living with:

• “So, to be totally honest, I don’t know who I am. And I don’t think people ever will know who they are. We have to be humble enough to learn to live with this mysterious question, “Who am I?” I am someone who is in this pilgrimage from the moment that I was born to the day that will come that I’m going to die. This is something that I can’t avoid. So what I have to do is to honor this pilgrimage through life.” – Paulo Coelho

2. Quote I’m considering:

• “In order to become myself I must cease to be what I always thought I wanted to be, and in order to find myself I must go out of myself, and in order to live I have to die.” – Thomas Merton (Seeds of Contemplation, p. 49)

3. Poem I’m pondering:

“Guest House” by Rumi

This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.

Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.

4. Something inspiring

• “This present moment used to be the unimaginable future.” — Stewart Brand (ht KK)

5. The blog’s still on hold as I write my Rewild School book and coach high school football! I’m coaching the junior varsity defensive backs. We had three weeks of two-a-days and just won our first game. Here’s an entry from my “Football Diary”:

• After driving home for five hours and then going to practice for two hours and then coming home past dinnertime knowing that I have to get up at 4:50 am to drive an hour to Fredericksburg to start the first day of classes at the university, my head was weighed down with exhaustion. But I looked up at Kyra and said “I think I’m happy.” I have not said those words for a while.

If you’re reading this newsletter for the first time, you can read previous issues here, view lists of poems, questions, quotes and songs I’ve shared before here, and subscribe here.

Thanks so much. And, have a great day! – shawn