Traveling Light
The stories we tell illustrate a lot about ourselves – who we are and how we got here.
When we look deeper, we realize stories also connect us to something larger than ourselves.
-The Miracle Collectors
October 27, 2024
October is a month of chasing fall colors, watching scary movies, and donning disguises should the spirit move you. Ghosts and goblins aside, we are all on a journey of the spirit whether we recognize it or not, as Katie writes about in this month's blog. Here’s to finding appreciation in the journey, wherever it may take us.
Collecting Miracle Moments One Story at a Time.
Joan and Katie
There is an age old saying, which I believe is true, that life, or the building blocks of life – career, family, friends, hobbies – are about the journey, not the destination. Journeys can be especially enjoyable when they take us to foreign lands (literal journeys), or allow us to ride a wave of contentment, or even when they are simply on a familiar and predictable path. These are all journeys where we have agency and seeming control over where we are headed and how to get there. Yet, all of us have experienced a different kind of journey, one where we are in unfamiliar and unexpected territory, and it is hard to find our bearings.
I connected this week with a gentleman, J. Chester Johnson, to thank him for his many years of contributing to an organization I have been involved with for years. Up until my email to him, he had been a name and number on a list, a person we have been grateful to for sure, but we knew nothing about him. He was unable to accept our event invitation because he is house bound from respiratory problems from his volunteer work after 9/11. He volunteered on the 12-hour night shift at St. Paul’s Chapel for many months, where the rescue workers – the firemen, policemen, and construction workers – who searched for remains and cleared the rubble, could find community, food, and rest. St. Paul’s was a sanctuary for the weary and broken hearted, located less than 100 yards from the World Trade Center and miraculously unscathed when the towers fell. Recognizing St. Paul’s holy ground, Mr. Johnson was inspired to pen a now famous poem entitled St. Paul’s Chapel (It Stood) https://www.carnegiehillvillage.org/photo-poem/saint-pauls-chapel.
My connection with Mr. Johnson was a reminder of how much we don’t ask or know about each other, how important it is to learn people’s stories, and how much we have in common. Mr. Johnson’s journey, the little I now know of it, is still one we can relate to in its unexpected turns. He says he does not regret volunteering at St. Paul’s where, I presume, he found peace in giving of himself and comfort in his embracing of a higher calling. Peace and comfort illuminate the ripple effect of the journey within.
Rainer Maria Rilke said, “The only journey is the one within.” It is here where we find resilience and strength and the where-with-all to navigate uncertainty. It is also where we find our connection to something bigger than ourselves, God by whatever name, or the Four Noble Truths of Buddhism or some humanist ideal – whatever it is we reach for in the dark. We are all on a spiritual journey, the most important journey of all, and the only one that counts when the world comes crashing in. No luggage required. (Katie)