Where the Pilgrimage Continues

I am writing this while on the bus, on bus route #303 from downtown Seattle to Shoreline. I travel on this bus every morning on my way to work/school and every afternoon on my way back home. I have been riding this bus for the past few years, long enough to recognize the regular travelers. By now I have met some of them, had some good conversations and listen to very interesting stories. I am not naturally chatty. I mostly keep to myself. However, these passengers and I share the same morning and afternoon experience, our stories intersect for 40 minutes while on route #303. But that is not the all the extend of our commonality. The lives of those in route #303 also meet in our common human experience.

I just returned a week ago from a 10 day pilgrimage in Holy Land. The experience was extraordinary. I was struck by the fact that the holy sites are made holy by the stories, the feelings, and the prayers poured into those places. There was nothing objectively visible about the Holy Places to make them remarkable, but simple stories of sacred events that shared through generations makes visiting them rich with meaning. So there I was in the Holy Land, joining the many pilgrims from ages past in consecrating the places by entering and participating into the Holy Stories, the stories of the place, the stories of it people and my stories too. As pilgrim, I joined the tradition of participating in journey toward the Holy that is everywhere. Now I am back home, where the pilgrimage continues. Bus route #303 is part of my continuing journey and the stories of the follow passengers are holy stories. I pray I can honor the their stories, as a pilgrim seeking to find Christ in them. As pilgrim in a Holy Land that is everywhere, listening to sacred stories everywhere, even at the bus stop while waiting for #303.


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