We’ve been at this for a while now, and there’s less than a month until the book launch! Have you signed up to get updates from A Sacred Journey so that you can be entered to win a signed copy? Have you visited the book site and shared it with everyone you’ve ever met? (Just a small request, right?) If you’re still not counting down the days yet (26, to be precise), watch the book trailer to get you in the spirit, and then come on back.
Today’s free preview is about “delight” and comes from the 6th Pilgrim Principle (1 more to go!): “A pilgrim carries herself with curiosity.” In the book, I explore four other expressions that help cultivate curiosity (a necessity for the pilgrim, for what’s a journey without it?): openness, willingness, desire, and perspective.
Enjoy today’s free preview, pass it on, and while you’re at it, tell your friends and family about how much you’ve enjoyed the other free previews, too:
1. “A pilgrim looks for the Sacred in the Quotidian” // Home
2. “A pilgrim practices somatic spirituality” // Taste
3. “A pilgrim is a good steward of resources” // Possessions
4. “A pilgrim immerses herself in culture” // Language
5. “A pilgrim creates daily rhythms to ground himself” // Body (guided meditation)
MORE PRAISE FOR THE BOOK
“Lacy weaves classic pilgrimage wisdom with fresh, accessible insight. She skillfully includes uncommon words like ‘quotidian’ alongside her own creative ‘pilgrim glasses’… reminding us to see the Sacred in everything. This book is the perfect pilgrim’s pack—filled with essentials, necessities, and a touch of surprise!”
Kayce Stevens Hughlett
author of As I Lay Pondering: Daily Invitations
to Live a Transformed Life
kaycehughlett.com
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pilgrim principles free book preview: delight
It’s summer now, and my husband and I are two months into our first vegetable garden. This year we planted purple bell peppers, jalapeños, cucumbers, wax beans, and three varieties of tomatoes. Ever since we planted our garden in May, I have been fascinated by the growing process of food that I’ve eaten for years, but apparently never fully understood. As a result, tending to the garden has been a great source of delight.
At least once each day–and often more–I venture out to the garden, checking in on the plants, as if we’re good friends. I love discovering blooms, knowing now that they are a harbinger of new fruit, and I routinely stare in awe at my vining cucumbers, amazed that yet another tendril has spiraled around a string since I’ve been away. “It’s like it’s alive!” I exclaim, not able to hide my excitement from anyone who asks about the garden. “I mean, I know it’s alive, but it’s alive alive!”
Yes, it seems that keeping a vegetable garden has brought me so much delight that I have lost my ability to articulate it clearly and can only describe my wonder with child-like excitement. It was no surprise then when I came to realize that by growing a garden I have not only been cultivating food–I have also been cultivating my curiosity through the gift of delight.
As we’ve discovered this week, curiosity is a natural trait of the pilgrim, for without curiosity, the pilgrimage would never begin. But for those who have forgotten how to be curious, it’s hard to know where to start. Often, to cultivate curiosity in our own lives, we need external inspiration. In order to carry ourselves with curiosity, it must be cultivated, and the best place to start is in the places where we find delight, for it’s there that our curiosity lies waiting for our embrace.
The pilgrim knows this and doesn’t wait until she reaches another country or a life-altering circumstance to ask questions or be filled with awe–she nourishes her curiosity at home, relishing in her delights. And when she allows herself to delight, celebrating her curiosity, she begins to become curious in other areas of life as well–she begins to carry herself with curiosity.
Tomorrow we’ll explore another way to do just that, but for me, gardening is a good place to start. As I’ve been writing, it seems a tomato that’s long been green has begun to ripen into an orangey-red by the warmth of the sun, and I have to go outside and look at it. What can I say? I’m curious.
PRACTICE
To begin exploring what brings you delight, collect images of things that attract your attention and put them in a place you see on a regular basis, such as on your refrigerator, on a bulletin board in your office, or as a slideshow screensaver. After a while you might begin to notice some themes and will be able to go even further in your search for delight. For example, if most of your pictures are of delectable desserts, take a baking class, and if your inspiration board is filled with images of the quaint English countryside, plant a garden that has its own way of transporting you there.
REFLECTION
What are the things that you are curious about that bring you delight? How can you incorporate these things into your everyday?
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This post was an excerpt from Pilgrim Principles: Journeying with
Intention in Everyday Life, releasing January 6, 2014.
Come back next Wednesday for the final free preview and learn more
about the book and enter to win a signed copy at pilgrimprinciples.com.
