"Know-Not-Where" Land

There are times when our journey to the place known as "know-not-where" begins without us.  Or, maybe it is more accurate to say it begins without a sense of awareness concerning the journey.  My high school English and literature teacher started me on such a journey as she pushed me to participate in debating, writing essays, and understanding the importance of precise use of the English language.  What I could not see in those days was movement toward becoming a "wordsmith," someone who would use words to create images and ideas.    

When I arrived at the farm in those early days of retirement I started moving toward another place known as "know-not-where."   After walking on this land for a spell, both my vision of what I was seeing and my awareness of what was going on around me started changing.  In some ways the movement toward an unexpected place has been so subtle it was hardly noticed, but once noticed, it was experienced as monumental.  So much of my theological foundation has been shook and, thus, shifted by these years of faith living where the creation is at the center of life instead of the church.    

When a friend shared a book a few years ago about Celtic spirituality, I discovered a more precise understanding of the "know-not-where" place to which I had been moving ever so slowly and steadily.  What I read resonated in what was changing in my spirit and the words on the pages could not be read fast enough.  It was a word which brought me home and to be honest, I had not realized I was gone.