The Way Made by Walking

Traveler, your footprints

are the only road, nothing else.

Traveler, there is no road;

you make your own path as you walk.

As you walk, you make your own road...

(from Anthony Machado)

Recently, in one of her regular Sunday blogs, Christine Valters Paintner shared the poem above, and explored how our journeys unfold by our walking.

"On a true pilgrimage, we soon discover that the journey has its own rhythm and momentum. We soon realize, if our hearts are listening, that there are secret destinations we were unaware of when we began."

How true that can be! Now in my early 70's, I am able to look back and see how little I knew of where life would lead me. I can see behind me the trail of unknown destinations that I would visit and then be called to walk beyond.

Recently my husband and I returned to Michigan for our grandson's college graduation. We visited the places we had met and fell in love at the University of Michigan, and later stayed in a hotel near the home of my great grandmother where I was raised for my first year of life. When my husband and I drove past my great grandmother's house, we noticed a young girl playing outside. We stopped the car, and rolling down my window, I told her I had also lived in that same house a long time ago. She was amazed. We then had such a sweet conversation, interspersed by cartwheels (hers) and giggles (both of ours). I felt at times that I was visiting with my own 8-year-old self from 64 years earlier: as if I had made one huge circle, like a labyrinth journey. As T.S. Eliot wrote,

“We shall not cease from exploration

And the end of all our exploring

Will be to arrive where we started

And know the place for the first time."

And I would add: to know the gift and blessing of the place in a new way. I believe that as adults, we can be with our earlier "destinations" in a new way -- with more freedom, gratitude and openness.

Christine Valters Paintner continues:

"Sometimes when I am working with someone in spiritual direction, I hear the longing from them to know the path God is calling them to, to have some certainty they are making the "right" choice. And yet this way of thinking about God is limiting. I have come to believe that God does not call us to one particular path that we have to scrutinize and discover.

God calls us to the fullness of living which can be manifested in a multitude of ways."

As humans, our vision (and imagination) is limited, but God "calls us to the fullness of living." How is this for you to hear? How, and where, have you experienced a fullness of living beyond what you could plan for yourself? For me, one place I have been blessed with "fullness of living" is to have met my husband 45 years ago, and been gifted with our four children, 10 grandchildren, and soon-to-be-two great grandchildren. So many manifestations of fullness and loving!

Now that we are older, there are still many destinations ahead of us. Some destinations, I know, will stop for visits with pain and loss, but my hope is that the "fullness of living" of God, still calls us onward.

May we all open to the invitations that come to us as we travel with God, and experience the "way" unfolding ahead of us, only known by walking. May we receive whatever we need for the next step.