We Get There By Walking

 

I began writing a blog a couple of years ago.
Part of the reason for doing so was to connect or to stay connected with people beyond those whom I see on a regular basis.
Part of the reason was the discipline of writing.
Writing several times each week has become something of spiritual discipline for me forcing me to carve out time to pay attention to who I am and how I am and where I am.  And to see and name those points of intersection between my faith, my best values and the world in which I live.
Now, a couple of years later it is time for a change.
Some of that change is reflected in a new platform and a new name for my blog.
Some of it has to do with my having more clarity now than when I began about why I write and what I hope to communicate through what I write.
So, welcome to We Get There By Walking.

The name comes from a banner that hung in a retreat center where I stayed many years ago.
Here is the story.
Shortly after I graduated from college I spent a month living at a retreat center in high desert outside of Sedona, Arizona. Silence was the order of the day…and of the night.
Those who lived or stayed at the center spoke only at meals and to give instructions for the daily work we did to maintain the center and during our morning and evening worship services.  The rest of the time was spent in silence.
The banner I remember hung in the entrance to the retreat center’s common space.
It read, “Pilgrim there is no way. You make it by walking.”
As my time at the center was ending, I took a piece of paper and sketched a person walking and added the words from the banner. I folded up the piece of paper and put it in my wallet where it stayed until it, literally, feel apart one day.

Now, years later, more than ever, I understand the truth of the words on that banner.
We get there by walking.
All you or I can do…
The best you and I can do…
Is to continue walking in the direction of our best dreams and our bravest hopes.
To continue walking in the direction of promises of God which are meant for us and for all.
More than ever that is what I am trying to do.
So, I invite you to walk with me.
Allow my words to spark your reflections.
Add your thoughts.
Ask your questions.
Suggest a topic you would like me to think and write about.
Share our reflections with others as an invitation for them to join us, as well.

Pilgrim, there is no way.
You…
We…
Make it by walking.

P.S. My thanks to Michael Guyra and Justin Near of PokaYoke Design for their help and support in helping my new blog take its first steps forward.