I read River Jordan's The Ancient Way: Discoveries on the Path of Celtic Christianity before the holidays. It's made me think about what it is to boldly pursue a vision for a pilgrimage as well as to choose to trust people while on that journey. It's made me think about how the longing for the journey, the planning for it, the returning from it, and the weaving of the experience of it into your ongoing life are as much part of the journey as are the days between the packing and unpacking of your bags. For River Jordan, this journey was a pilgrimage to Iona, Scotland, the birthplace of Celtic Christianity, but Jordan's writing invites you to take what she learned and think about it in terms of ordinary life. To be touched by a vision of something that's yours to do and then to seek to do it, without knowing how it will play out in your life.

”I learned that following that sense of direction that came from a place deep in my soul was sometimes the surest way to find myself right where I belonged. As I traveled the path, God showed me that, like Columba and the monks of Iona, the point was for me to live the faith, to walk it out. To embrace the path and the doing of it and at all times to walk with the understanding that I was to be a blessing to those I met as I went. To be a living epistle.”