A Poem Sent by Kate

When you travel,

A new silence

Goes with you,

And if you listen,

You will hear

What your heart would

Love to say.

A journey can become a sacred thing:

Make sure, before you go,

To take the time

To bless your going forth,

To free your heart of ballast

So that the compass of your soul

Might direct you toward

The territories of spirit

Where you will discover

More of your hidden life,

And the urgencies

That deserve to claim you.

May you travel in an awakened way,

Gathered wisely into your inner ground;

That you may not waste the invitations

Which wait along the way to transform you.

May you travel safely, arrive refreshed,

And live your time away to its fullest;

Return home more enriched, and free

To balance the gift of days which call you.

(credit - John O'Donohue - thank you Kate!)

The arrival of this poem made me think of this ...
a bronze from the Alto del Perdon
Camino de Santiago

Day 4, Chapter 4, Letter to Ted

Lifting the Gaze

When I have blood taken I have to lie down, and turn my face to the wall, covering my eyes with my arm.  I had to have blood taken last week too, lots of it.  It took longer than I would have liked and so I found myself blathering on to the lab technician about my brother - about what a wimp he had been about needles and hospitals until he got sick and spent five years on dialysis because of the autoimmune destruction of his kidneys.  That rid him of his fear.

My brother rode his bike to and from dialysis as much as he could, head up and eyes forward.  He continued to live despite it all. He went to work.  He kept raising his kids.  He kept loving his wife. He kept coaching bowling.  He got used to the needles.

The alternative thoughts - death, pain, darkness - were best not to think about, my brother said. Death, for my brother, was not an option.  Until it was. And then he died.

I have a body like my brother's which turns on itself.  I am immune to most other things.  I haven't had a cold or  virus for four years.  Autoimmunity is what lives in me.  It's stronger than any bug.

My brother taught me that lifting the gaze and being alive is very important work.  That's what he taught me.