Pondering Pilgrimage

Now that the pilgrimage is a few days behind me and I've caught up on my sleep (mornings come early in northern Wales . . . even earlier when there's a tree full of wood doves nesting outside your bedroom window) I'm finally having some time to reflect on my experience.   

Like many of the pilgrims, I embarked on this journey with some specific intentions, hopes and dreams.  I don't know if I found any answers along the way.  I think I gave up any need to find them fairly early on as I let myself just be fully present in each moment, not holding onto the perceived need to be still and silent.  Instead, I let myself wander and let the landscape speak to me.  What I did find, in looking back on the pictures I took, was that the images I captured seemed to focus mainly on doors and paths leading to who knows where.  Perhaps the perfect metaphor for the journey . . .

Doors and Perception

The Door by Miroslav Holub (trans. by Ian Milner) from Poems Before & After: Collected English Translations, second edition (Bloodaxe Books)

Go and open the door.
     Maybe outside there's
     a tree, or a wood,
     a garden,
     or a magic city.

Go and open the door.
     Maybe a dog's rummaging.
     Maybe you'll see a face,
or an eye,
or the picture
                      of a picture.

Go and open the door.
     If there's a fog
     it will clear.

Go and open the door.
     Even if there's only
     the darkness ticking,
     even if there's only
     the hollow wind,
     even if
                 nothing
                             is there,
go and open the door.

At least
there'll be
a draught.


This poem is one I can read over and over again and continue to find something new to ponder. Perhaps it's because doors are such powerful images for reflection.  I always seem to find myself taking photographs of doorways and thresholds when I travel. 

There are the inviting doorways . . .





Winchester Cathedral Close

and the ones that deny access.

Mosque, Old Damascus

 



 There are doorways that are forever closed . . .

Another from Winchester Cathedral

 

and places where walls are knocked down to create a way in.

 

Berlin Wall





 

Sometimes it seems like there are a lot of doors from which to choose . . .

 

Beittedine Palace, Lebanon

 

 

and at other times just one path.

Beaumaris Castle, Wales

Doors invite us to go beyond what the eye can see, to consider what is revealed and what is hidden, what is expected and what is unexpected, where there is light and dark, invitation and obstacles.  So what kind of door are you facing today?  And what do you expect to find when you open it?
 

Doorway and Lantern, Damascus