Pilgrim or a Tourist

Hello and welcome to a subzero, brrrrrrrrrr, Saturday here at the Wannaskan Almanac. Today is January 18th. How did we get through over half of January so fast?!

Last Saturday, I blogged about my WOTY (words of the year) for 2025 - Determined and Focused. Thank you to everyone who commented on the blog and elsewhere, sharing your own words and resolutions. I wrote that I'm a "faithful fan of resolutions because I'm human and I fail - often." I'd like to build that statement out further by adding that, despite failing, I also believe in the goals and intentions I set. I deeply believe in the value of meaningful pursuits. I've learned that if I have a continual hankering to achieve a goal - write a book, read more, be a better person, finish knitting that sweater I started 10 years ago - that isn't abated by the distraction of a different pursuit, or chocolate, it probably means that I should do it. 

And on that note, let me tell you about the question posed to me this week: Are you a pilgrim or a tourist?

I rejoined my church's group of prayer ladies this past Wednesday after a 5-year hiatus. The group is kicking off the new year with Matthew Kelly's book, 33 Days to Eucharistic Glory and Day 1's message is: Life is a pilgrimage. We're just passing through this world. (p. 20)

As I reflected on the time that passed between my last attendance to prayer group and my return, I realized just how much life pushes us through change: the pandemic (illness), national and global events outside of our control (pandemic again, elections, wars, natural disasters), and personal choice (job changes, moves, kids going off to college). A spiritual journey is a choice that can be as life-changing as all of the aforementioned. It moves our hearts. It shifts and readies our souls. A seismic *boom* that alters you and the universe forever.

Am I a pilgrim or a tourist?

I "began again" a new fitness journey on December 1st, 2024. It was very hard at first, but it's been a good change. I do most of the tasks I'm supposed to do on most days; some days more (all of the tasks) and some days less. The first week after the holidays, as we transitioned back to "Ordinary Time," I was not wanting to do really any of the assigned tasks. My coach told me, "We (as humans) like relaxed; we like go-as-we-choose, and we like our people home and the comforts of this reality. You're battling returning to the routine of choosing you. The resistance is real. But keep pushing through it by choosing to stay consistent and do the things you don't feel like doing and this, too, shall pass."

The fitness journey is like a pilgrimage. It's not a trip and definitely not a vacation. The journey of making healthy choices is a pilgrimage. The journey of completing those daily tasks is a pilgrimage. Heck, even reading a book is a pilgrimage. Anything that requires sticking to it and getting to "The End" or to some kind of learning, awareness, enlightenment, epiphany - a Eureka! - is a pilgrimage.

It's not enough to superficially "see" like one might do from a tourist bus or from the car window - consider Edward Abbey's, Desert Solitaire: A Season in the Wilderness, a memoir of his time as a park ranger at Arches National Monument just before the movement of paving drive-thru viewing experiences of national parks. - but to experience. To have the thing sink into your body; permeate your flesh and bones and feel in a way that shifts your cells with new understanding and awareness.

I often look forward to endings and when things will be over. "One and done." "I can't wait 'til this is over.", "Why did I sign up for this?" and "Ugh." Finishing, or ending, something gives it a finality, closure, a checkmark in the box of life's list. But some things aren't on the list, that have no checkbox, like lifelong health - you always have to work at it. Physical health, mental health, and spiritual health. Small tasks like "eat your Wheaties," can be a checkbox, but it's not on the life list; it's on the daily to-do list and that list begins again every day. 

And that is what makes life a marathon instead of a sprint. A pilgrimage instead of a trip.

My husband is an expert at this. I sometimes wonder if he isn't OCD because, in the 25 years of knowing him, he has been diligent in checking the boxes on his daily list: house shoes, turn the lights off, make the tea, eat onion, do push-ups, ventilate the bedrooms, don't waste water, plug in the car, put the windshield wipers up, do your Czech reading, writing, and Duolingo. The rigidity and fastidiousness of the persistent consistency of his daily box-checking drives me crazy.

But my husband gets it.

He gets it that this day-to-day living is a pilgrimage and not a trip. (Note: When we do go on trips, he waits until the last minute to figure out who needs which skis and how we're going to pack all of the gear only to discover items are missing, worn out, or no longer fit.)

We complement each other. He knows how to run the marathon and I know how to do the sprints (short trips).

One and done. All or nothing. My health coach calls these limiting beliefs; that the extremes are invitations to quit because it's a zero-sum game. You either win or lose.

But if it's a pilgrimage, there is no ending. A health journey of body, mind, and soul is a pilgrimage.

Life is a pilgrimage. We're just passing through this world.

"One and done" thinking is impatience. It is the desire for an easy (or easier) path. It's bursts of effort rewarded with permission to return to the relaxed comforts of being home during the holidays. It's check the box. It's cake instead of cardio.

Kelly also writes on page 20, "The virtue of patience deepens your ability to meet life's challenges. It is a form of suffering. Though often mild, it does refine character and soul. You can discipline yourself to be patient. This is what the wise and happy do."

Which brings me to death.

I have been thinking a lot about death lately. I heard someone say, "I'm not afraid of death; I'm afraid of being dead." Me too. The finality of that makes my body reject and repel that notion. I am not ready to be dead. I am very much present in the physical world. I have so much to do, things I feel responsible for, things I feel called to do, a mission to fulfill, and people to help and take care of. 

If we are just passing through this world, I have to remember and reframe that, while the world is finite, heaven is forever. There is no end. And if this is true - and I believe it to be - then, not only is life a pilgrimage (this time in the world) - but so is eternity.

So today, and this year, I embrace my WOTY - determined and focus - to have patience and to journey like I'm a pilgrim instead of a tourist. To see, hear, touch, taste, smell - be present - in all that I encounter.