My dear friend Jodi called me from Goa, where she now lives, and said “Come.”
Have you ever gotten that call? The one that just resonates in your body and says “YES”? My thoughts started going to the reasons why I shouldn’t … financial-wise, practicality-wise, time-wise … All those “wise” reasons, which came from my mind, seemed so much less wise then the resounding “YES” that was coming from my body. Ayurveda teaches that one of the causes of disease is not listening to our inner wisdom. You all know that inner wisdom. That is the voice that says “Don’t eat that plate of chocolate chip cookies at midnight”, and not listening is when you do it anyway. This time, my inner wisdom was yelling that I needed to go … despite all the reasons why I shouldn’t. And so? I’m going.
And then, I had tea with another dear friend, Kate. Kate is a traveler. She was even more excited for me than I was. And she handed me a book. “The Art of the Pilgrimage” by Phil Cousineau. Just having a name to put to this journey, a name that automatically made it feel like a soulful, life changing event, changed my entire perspective. Instead of just traveling to India, I am now going on a Pilgrimage.
Cousineau says “Ancient wisdom suggests if you aren’t trembling as you approach the sacred, it isn’t the real thing. The sacred, in its various guises as holy ground, art or knowledge, evokes emotion and commotion”. This gave me comfort and explained the nervousness I was experiencing whenever I thought about this journey. We all take journeys, each and every day. Some are more apparent than others, but even if we remain within the comforts of our own home, we are still moving forward. However, when we begin an outer journey such as this, we have certain expectations that changes will occur, even if we have no idea what they might be. Yesterday, one of the gentlemen who regularly attends a class I hold asked me “You aren’t going to come back weird, are you?” I laughed and told him not to worry, I was already weird. The reality of it is, I don’t know who will be coming back, but I do expect to like her.