Journey of Discovery

Discovering the World

“And the world cannot be discovered by a journey of miles, no matter how long, but only by a spiritual journey, a journey of one inch, very arduous and humbling and joyful, by which we arrive at the ground at our feet and learn to be home.”
Wendell Berry (The Unforeseen Wilderness: Kentucky's Red River Gorge)

Are you a traveler? I have friends who live to travel; they seemingly can't get enough of seeing the world. In my imagination, and in my studies, I read about the world. I look at photos and listen to my friends' stories told in the hushed tones of rapture. But somehow, nothing in me wants to get into an airplane and go there. I love looking at pictures of the colors and canals of Venice, the domes and turrets of St. Petersburg, the moors of Scotland, the vineyards of Tuscany—but unless I can be magically transported there, I will probably never see them with these two eyes. I prefer virtual journeys. Air travel is not my passion, but discovery is.

Parker Palmer writes in his column, “To Be at Peace with Our Essential Loneliness,” for the On Being website (May 7, 2018) that nobody can discover the world for another person, and that our travels, wherever they may take us, are actually journeys within. We don't so much experience the place, as we do our own response to that place. I remember my son, Ian, saying, “Mom, I've stood on Hadrian's Wall, and I will never be the same again!” We are changed by what we see and experience. We “learn what's out there, but also what's in here.” (Palmer) No matter how many people are around us, we are essentially alone in our experience. And what we bring back, besides t-shirts and memories, are newly known parts of ourselves evoked by the unfamiliar sights and sounds. For each new discovery we make about ourselves, we add security to our being in the world—we become more comfortable in our own skin.

Every journey, then, brings us back to ourselves. We stand on our own ground, on our own two feet, and know that we are home not because of a geographic location, but because we are substantial and secure within. Every journey is a spiritual one, not because of the place, but because we are there watching our souls reveal themselves.

In the Spirit,
Jane