In much of my ministry work, there has been this constant thread called the journey.  I find that I cannot exist apart from it; I am, because I am a part of it and it is a part of me.  I and my journey are one! Over the years, my friends have asked both jokingly and reverently, “Have you ever done a message that did not include the word journey?”  That was the point that I started to notice; or rather I began to awaken and gratefully I can report that the answer to that question is “No, not really”.  The Journey always gets a mention no matter what the topic.  I would even dare to assert that this is because this idea of the journey is more than just my thing; at some point in our life the journey belongs to each and all of us.  From my map of the world, it is that primal call of my soul that leads me to the light, the truth and the love that I am; wherever I am.

I thought that this journey of life was to be about moving forward into my true self and I was wrong; no I was really wrong.  I know that movement into my true self is not an arrival somewhere that I have never been; it is a return to who and how I was before… This journey for me has been and still is about returning to the Source and Core of my being and reconnecting those dots, reaffirming my truth and recollecting all the joy that has been missing.  I believe that this journey of life is not about a movement into something new  but about a return to that which has always been.  In other words, it does not matter where I have been, where I am going or where I am; because the truth of the matter that will never change is that I will always hail from the village that I know as Shreveport, Louisiana.  This is my home above all homes, because that is where my roots run deep and my coming into life or birth changed at least one family forever.

A few days ago, my Godson asked, “How do we know that we are on the right path?”  I answered “I don’t know if I have ever really known; I have just learned to trust the flow and the process”.  Oh so often, we speak about callings  as if they are out there somewhere beyond our physicality in the floating around in the atmosphere and existing as something that we have to live into, step into and become something more than I have ever known.  In fact our whole existence is a grand call and response to that which we have always been.  It is only out of pure familiarity that we even know a call is a call and it is faith that leads and compels us to respond and be the light that was in the beginning.  I am convinced that there are signs and messages all around us, which call out to us and are even now awaiting our responses.  Simeon’s question helped me see that knowing that you are on the right path has less to do with the call to come and more to do with our individual and collective decisions to go.

So, as we prepare to conclude the celebration of this Advent Season, my prayer is that we remember that although the Liturgical Calendar points us forward into the next observance; the soul is always on that journey that takes us back home, back to the beginning, back to the light, back to the love, back to the gift of our coming into being; over and over again.  With that, I bid you good journey and the blessing of knowing that wherever you are; all is bright!  So it is with that my friends that I wish each of you many happy returns on your journey of the coming days and please know that all the Universe Celebrates You Home.

Many Blessings,

Kathy