Committing to the journey
and knowing that the journey will change you forever
she journeys
beyond the here and now
she journeys
she takes her heart and soul
her mind and body
and she journeys
beyond the familiar
into the unknown
beyond the known
into the unspoken
she journeys
beyond her birth land
and into the lands of her heart
she journeys
she meets her spiritual kin
amongst the trees
and the stones
amongst conversations
and people
she journeys
beyond the physical realm
into the lands deep within her heart
she journeys
she journeys
where only the depth of her truth
lay open and bare
Callanish Stones. Isle of Lewis, Scotland - Sept 2023
I wonder, do you ever journey consciously into another time and place, real or spiritual, knowing that even before you get there you have already changed for the better?
and then when you do get there something beyond words shifts your consciousness and you realise that you have stepped up, stepped out, stepped into something so great that your heart needs time to integrate, to understand and to process?
and then, when you come back to your original place you realise that while you have “changed” you are actually more YOU than you ever were before?
Hello my friend,
How are you? As you know I am travelling at the moment - thus my irregular contact with you. At the moment we are in London, having spent the most extraordinarly life-changing time in Scotland and Ireland.
I wrote an article for Conscious Living Jewel’s recent publication entitled Unearthing the Sacred Sites Within. (This particular publication is FREE so do check out my article on page 8.)
I love travelling. I find that when I travel I unearth something within me that was not visible before. Some sacred site. Some ancient treasure. Some old writing that at last I am able to decipher and understand. Some committment that until now I was unable to make or know or do.
I wonder, have you ever experienced something like that before?
Yarrow at the base of one of the stones at Stonehenge - Sept 2023
Sometimes though, even before I begin to travel I must empty my backpack.
I packed it once, twice, maybe three times and I realised I still had so much stuff. Too much really. It is only a small pack to begin with, and yet I feel I have to pack it tight.
And then I unpack it.
AGAIN.
Why do I need all this stuff?
Why do I feel I need to carry it with me,
EVERYWHERE?
I wonder how long have I actually carried this backpack?
I wonder how long have I chosen to stuff more on top of what is already there?
I wonder can I actually turn the whole thing upside down and empty it once and for all?I wonder???
So I unpack it again and AGAIN before I get on the plane. Some things will always come with me - favourite jeans, comfy tops, passports - life’s essentials.
Some things I am not ready to leave behind so they come with me too. I know that by the time I come home nature would have reclaimed them, blown them from me, or transformed them into something I now need more.
Somethings I am ready to gift others, even though they were a special treasure once upon a time. Those times, I realise that I was only the creator of that treasure, or the caretaker, or the messenger, and that role becomes so sacred.
So sacred.
And then I travel and land somewhere else. Somewhere that my heart has always wanted to go, yet only until now have I physically arrived.
To physically arrive somewhere.
To do the big journey from here to there requires commitment. Sometimes one doesn’t have to travel to the other side of the world, sometimes one only has to travel to their local park, their local lake, their backyard.
Each takes us to our inner world.
Either way one COMMITS to the journey.
The journey.
Hawthorn berries - Faerie Tree - Hill of Tara, Ireland
As you will read in Unearthing the Sacred Sites Within at times I feel as though I am an archeologist when I travel. I discover, within my own inner sacred landscape so many wonderful sites that I never dreamed would be there. Stone circles, cairns, ancient caves with writings and inscriptions. Ancient guardians that have been waiting until now to meet me.
So I walk in the landscape - both within and without.
Sometimes the landscape is so exquisite that my breath is taken within the first few steps and tears flow and flow and flow.
Sometimes the landscape seems barren to the naked eye and yet amongst the heather and rocks there is a life force that I never knew existed - within nature and within myself. A spacious landscape that if one walked long enough there would be no one else to see, no one else except for me and the spirit of nature Herself.
Sometimes there are other movements. A squirrel? A dog? Ahh, the Wee Folk, the Guardians of this time and space…
I have to stop. Be still. LISTEN.
I have to offer something - a bit of an apple, some crumbs of oat cakes, some water from my water bottle. Yet I have to offer more than that.
I have to offer an OPEN HEART.
Only then can we pass.
The veil has been lifted. Sometimes for a long time. To come in and sit upon ancient old moss. Comfortable. Safely held. Nurtured. We breathe in a time and place that we never want to leave. We breathe in a place where our hearts are at home.
Sometimes though we are invited to come and sit, only to sit with the midges, to get bitten and bitten and bitten,
yet to sit,
to touch,
only for a time.
Only for a time.
Yet in that time something is gifted, received and accepted.
And then in that gifting, receiving and accepting, a promise is made. A vow is committed,
and never again will one’s life be the same.
Only
BETTER.
In honour of your journey,
and the road that you took to get there.
Blessed Be,
Sam
I have chosen to use Substack for its community based ethos. I would love you to join my online community by sharing what this post means to you, or by forwarding and sharing this with your own community.
Here are some thoughts to ponder…
What did you take in your backpack the last time you travelled - physically or spiritually?
What did you consciously leave behind?
What did you take knowing that you were the caretaker of this treasure and you would gift it to someone else?
What landscapes have captured your heart, your soul, your deeper imagination?
What landscapes opened up within you?
Thank you for letting us on your journey Sam. I do much more inner travelling these days. To sacred sites, communities, rituals and ceremonies, but I do want to explore many places too. I’d actually love to see more of Scotland and Ireland as they feel so magical. You’ll have to let me know what you loved about them most. 💫🙏
This is so beautiful! Like Louise and Julie, most of my journeys are liminal these days. But when I do travel in the physical plane, I am a classic overpacker. I want to be sure I have everything I could possibly ever need to soothe my every anxiety (of which there are many). I'm so inspired by your ability to travel with one little pack! I see in you the capacity to feel a sense of home anywhere you are. That's remarkable indeed! Also, I loved your article about the sacred sites within!