Starting Out...

This morning I woke with the flavour of a dream, and not the details. I felt peaceful, reassured, pleased with life - an excellent way to begin this blog and proceed on this journey! Out the window, summer was shining in all her early morning glory. And in the Kettle Valley where I've been living the past few weeks, the glory truly shines. Soon I will be leaving this beauty behind and waking to a different kind of beauty, deep in the city, yet still in the hills - for which I give thanks!

Between then and now there is a plethora of way-stops - Packing in a way that everything I want/need to take with me fits into my car… (my friends shake their heads in disbelief) Leave-taking from my communities and dear ones…  Then driving a LONG WAY!… In Portland, Oregon, celebrating a book launch of my newly published edition - "In a Time of Change; Poems for the Lost and the Found, The Hungry and the Hopeful" (named long before I ever dreamed this journey was waiting for me!), Driving more LONG WAY…  and finally… Arriving in Berkeley at "Holy Hill" - really! That's what  it's called!

In all of this I constantly remind myself to breathe. I ask for more hugs than usual. I softly chant my mantra to myself, a fusion from Julian of Norwich and a gift from a dear friend: "All will be well, and all will be well, and all manner of things shall be well. And… God's got it!"  And then I breathe again. Lots! 

And continually I remember the moment when I discovered a quiet, hidden part of myself weeping tears of relief that I am going to do this, going to seminary and entering into the discernment path for the priesthood. The sweet surprise of that moment lingers and sustains me.