A Pilgrimage
Paulo Coelho’s, the Brazilian lyricist best known for his books The Alchemist and The Pilgrimage interview with On Being host Krista Tippett in 2014 was broadcasted on August 4, 2016. It can be listened to, read or downloaded. I was fascinated by the title of the interview “The Alchemy of Pilgrimage” although, to be honest, I always listen to this show because I can expect to be a richer man at the end of a broadcast no matter whom the guest. On might say that soaking up the wisdom and the challenges of wise risk takers is an essential part of my pilgrimage. One of Mr. Coelho’s statement made to Ms. Tippett which made me smile was:
“Every morning, I find myself a different person. I’m always a mystery to myself. If I knew in the first hours of the morning what I’m going to do, what is going to happen, what attitude or decision should I take — I think my life would be deadly boring because, well, what makes life interesting is the unknown. It is the risks that we take every single moment of a single day.”
As a counselor and a person who has been blessed with many new and varied experiences I am acutely aware of the duality of the reaction of many of us to opening ourselves to new experiences – to new steps Whether it is opening ourselves to new thoughts or to more fully experience a wide range of emotions there is always both a sense of excitement accompanied by anxiety or fear. I find it easy to get excited about new experiences – new possibilities – and, yet, I am frequently a little fearful of the unknown.
The description which Wikipedia gives for pilgrimage is:
“A pilgrimage is a journey or search of moral or spiritual significance. Typically, it is a journey to a shrine or other location of importance to a person's beliefs and faith, although sometimes it can be a metaphorical journey into someone's own beliefs.”
For Paul Coelho it has been both – a time out for a physical pilgrimage in space – a distance of 500 walking miles – and a daily commitment to being present to the mystery of who is he on any particular day.
He is not suggesting that his core values or his core commitments change every day. Obviously, he made and kept a commitment to talk to Krista Tippett. He makes and keep commitments to explore via the pen. He has been married to and has loved the same woman who is, of course, in another sense, not the same woman on any given day. He is a firm believer that love is a verb – an action work – and yet, at the very same time he embraces learning and is reaches out to experience what each day brings to his thoughts and feelings.
When he first published his now very famous book, The Alchemy, it sold so few copies that his publisher gave the book back him. It would take 15 years for it to become a best seller. It has now been on the New York Times best seller list for over 400 weeks.
Who is this man who can travel from the forced Christianity of his childhood, to a Jesuit education, to his training in law, to becoming a “drop out” and then at age 40 deciding to take the risk of owning his identity as an author? He is the same man who later returns home to a new understanding and appreciation of Christianity; the same man who would eventually become a revered and admired world famous author.
In my practice as a licensed professional counselor and a certified addiction counselor fear often seems the strongest emotion which determines the road traveled or, more importantly, the road not traveled. Often one meets addiction when a person is attempting to run from uncomfortable feelings or situations. I have heard many say that they never felt as if they fit in and,yet, they feel unable to move from that stance. Many people I meet stay in unsatisfying jobs, marriages, and other situations because they are allowing the fear of the unknown to keep them from their pilgrimage. They are not able to be present to or excited about the life they have now, but cannot allow themselves to risk moving on to what might be. They die “in place” rather than moving toward a dream. As I mentioned, Paulo Coelho did not pursue his dream of becoming a writer until he was 40. Prior to that he was preparing to take that important step. He brings to this part of his pilgrimage a history of struggling, learning, searching and waking up to greet the mystery of who he might be and who he might become. He approach his relationship with his spouse and the rest of his life with the same openness to mystery.
It is interesting to speculate what it might be like if more of us could allow ourselves to open our arms to the mystery of who we are today as well as the mystery of who our partner, our children, or others we might encounter are today. It seems to me that it is easy for many of us to fall into the trap of thinking that there is no mystery to anyone in our life or any of those we might directly and indirectly encounter today. How many days do we awaken “knowing” not only who we are but who everyone we meet are? How many days do we dread meeting the same, boring, dreary people again? What might happen if we could follow the example of Mr. Coelho and expect to find that we are all mysteries waiting to be unveiled and experienced?
Written August 8, 2016