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Pause for Reflection at Montes de Oca
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We are all pilgrims.
Traditionally, a pilgrimage is an intentional journey to a destination considered sacred or significant in some way associated with a spiritual figure, an event or a practice. Many are the shrines, temples and sites worldwide to which pilgrims have travelled over the ages—many walking miles to such well known destinations as Mecca, Lourdes, Benares on the Ganges, the Wailing Wall, Deer Park, Jerusalem, Canterbury and Santiago de Compostela. Can the idea of pilgrimage also be symbolic of another kind of path we sometimes find ourselves on whose destination may be uncertain or unknown? Are pilgrims prepared and fit for the risks involved in stepping away from familiar landscapes—both inner and outer. All journeys offer opportunities to transform toward a heightened consciousness and greater self-knowledge.
Whether a physical journey to a destination, a path taken inwardly by intention, or one thrust upon us by chance, each journey requires taking risks, having resolve, courage, stamina and self-reflection. Each pilgrim would have the expectation to complete the journey successfully with a sense of accomplishment. Each may be accompanied by variety of feelings: vulnerability, uncertainty, fear, hope, sorrow, joy and often an element of surprise at the unexpected encounters along “The Way.”
All great literature, or any story worth telling, involves the drama of a pilgrimage of sorts. Shakespeare’s King Lear unknowingly puts himself on a path of unintentional pilgrimage when he seeks affirmation of love from his three daughters, and will divide his kingdom among them, based on the profuseness of their expressions of adoration. His youngest daughter, Cordelia, refuses to honor Lear’s selfish and foolish demand and, therefore, is disinherited. His other daughters pass the test willingly with words crafted for self-gain. When they receive what they were promised, they exile him.
All is lost—position, power and wealth. Most devastating is the betrayal, as he is thrust into the hardships of the Wilderness. He endures the outer elements of a raging storm, and the inner ones of anguish rage, despair, blindness and madness—all due to the arrogance of his ego.
The once-king does not know where he is or who he is, until Cordelia comes to his rescue. His inner landscape has been transformed and in a sense he finds himself in the Promise Land of forgiveness, acceptance and unconditional love, what he had been seeking all along, but through a tragic flaw of the arrogance of ego.
Ultimately, we all long for unconditional love and acceptance, and hope to find it here on earth, but, as “faithful” pilgrims, we must be submit to the challenges and demands, and enjoy blessings of our life’s journey, sometimes not knowing where our pilgrimage will take us to our destination, to the ends of the earth, or to the limits of our longing.
One thing is certain, we will not end up where we started. If we are fortunate, we, like King Lear, can emerge from Wilderness to Promise Land.
