Pilgrimage

'A journey, away from home, in search of spiritual well being' is a preferred definition of writer, traveller and presenter Simon Reeve, who's BBC programme 'Pilgrimage' I've just been catching up on.

Before I go any further, I'll take this opportunity to forewarn you that this might get a bit deep and possibly meaningful, and could lead to me sounding like Sex and the City's Carrie as she voices over her own musings on life in that ponderous tone, never really making a point but just asking further questions.

The first of these questions that has popped into my head is, by choosing to come to Australia, did I make a subconscious decision to make my own pilgrimage? Isn't some sort of well being what I'm striving for by choosing to spend time in a county and a city with vast amounts of sunshine compared to my home and which features year after year in lists like 'top ten cities to live in' and 'most desirable places to live'? The logical, less spiritual part of my brain says not really; I have family here who I've wanted to meet since I was a child, and the idea of going as far away as I can go on this planet appealed immensely to my adventurous side. However, I think I like the idea of my mind and the universe having drawn me here, to undertake this journey, because they knew I needed it. Whilst my physical journey was nowhere near as arduous as the old pilgrims' on the Camino de Santiago, for example, and is not connected to a major faith, my spiritual and personal journey is definitely shaping up to be one that's showing me more about myself than I could have imagined.

One practice I have begun is that of Bhava yoga, mainly because my cousin teaches this style of yoga and encouraged me to come along to a class. Without warning, I was overwhelmed with emotion. I had thought of myself as fairly well in tune with my thoughts and feelings but actively opening my mind to let them flood in made me realise I was actually quite shut off from them. Since then, I have been trying to let myself become immersed in the sessions, to see what my mind is doing, which aspects of my life are enriching it and what it is lacking. For me, this is calming and, I think, makes me more productive in my thinking. It's like an escape, but one who's effects I can feed back into my daily life.

Something I've come to notice about my 'pilgrimage', if you will, is that it is mine, and mine alone. Of course it is constantly influenced and shaped by the actions of others too, but in the end, it is mine and only mine. A thought like this would have scared me in my teenage years, when, as many teenagers do, I yearned to be accepted into groups, cliques, to not have to wonder whether I belonged. Maybe I've realised that I do belong, with the family and friends that I've made and kept over the years, or maybe this yearning has weakened with growing older. Little things remind me of this, like being completely happy to sit in a cafe and eat lunch alone. As I did just this the other day, I looked around and noticed lots of other people doing the same; in our solitude, we become a collective.

After all, isn't life one big pilgrimage in itself? Maybe we're all taking the journey together, and sharing it is what makes it so great.


photos here and here