winter morning
Please bring strange things.
Please come bringing new things.
Let very old things come into your hands
Let what you do not know come into your eyes.
Let desert sand harden your feet.
Let the arch of your feet be your mountains.
Let the paths of your fingertips be your maps
And the ways you go be the lines on your palms.
Let there be deep snow in your inbreathing
And your outbreath be the shining of ice.
May your mouth contain the shapes of strange words
May you smell food cooking you have not eaten.
May the spring of a foreign river be your navel.
May your soul be at home where there are no houses.
Walk carefully, well loved one.
Walk mindfully, well loved one.
Walk fearlessly, well loved one.
Return with us, return to us.
Be always coming home.
Initiation Song from the Finders Lodge/Always Coming Home by Ursula K. LeGuin
This quote is from Always Coming Home, and although I haven't read it myself, it's a fantasy/science fiction story about post-industrial California. It seems that the explorers in this book are always on their way back home, even if they're on their way to other lands. I really love this idea...wherever they are, they are at home. They are always coming home. I can relate to this sense of wherever I am, I'm at home. Wherever I travel I always feel I could stay there for a long time. I can feel both at home and yet not at home.
This writing also speaks to me about life transitions...moving from one stage in life to another (from child to adult), taking on a new role in life (becoming a parent) or even moving from one year on to the next. I like to think that as we adventure through life we're neither staying the same nor becoming someone new...we`re becoming more of who we are.
We're coming home to ourselves.
As we transition from 2010 to 2011
my wish for us all
is that we are always coming home
to our true selves.
