Digging in the Dirt

A recent encounter with a website entitled "The Contemplative Monk"   gave me a new view of an old image.  Obviously, the idea of the spiritual life being a journey is something to which I have given much thought over the years.  When it came time to name this blog, JourneyNotes seemed like a most appropriate name.   In many ways it has seemed like the journey of faith has been about being led from where we are to where God wants us to be.  And after some time I have come to a place of knowing the journey itself is more important than arriving at some level of spirituality, or a destination.

 

This website definition provided a new cud on which to chew as it said, "The path isn't a straight line; it is a spiral.  You constantly come back to things you thought you understood and see deeper truths."  Such is so very descriptive of the journey in these recent years.  There was a time when everything was about doing and staying busy, but as the years have changed into a different season, the doing part of life has been replaced by a realization that being is enough.  A part of this transition has brought me to places where so many of the nailed down theological things have been pulled loose for another look. 

 

While I am not always sure I am able to see the deeper truths mentioned in this new definition, there is an awareness that there is more to see than meets the eye of the mind.  Another author I have been reading suggests that the spiritual journey is an inch long and several miles deep.  There is indeed much to probe as we journey along in the midst of holy Mystery.  To travel for more than a few days is to find ourselves understanding that the first glance might have been so superficial that we missed much of what lurked there just under the surface for those who lingered to dig in the dirt.