One of my favorite gifts I got in last year was a word. My dear friend Roxanne Morgan endowed me with Peregrinatio. Maybe you’re quite familiar with this old Latin word, but I had never heard it before.
She had to say it more than once for me to get close to the proper pronunciation. But once she defined it for me, I knew Peregrinatio and I would be close through the ages.
It means “self-imposed exile for the love of God; holy wandering.”
Peregrinatio originates from these monks who would get into little round boats, boats you can’t steer. They’d hop in their boats and travel wherever the current took them. When they’d washed up on shore they’d simply go serve and receive hospitality. Then when the time seemed right they’d return to their round boats and join the current.
The image entices and challenges me at the moment. Recently “going with the flow” has felt like a luxury afforded to only those living on another planet.
In the past two weeks I moved out of the flat where I had been living for 10 years, finished up a major TV project on sex-trafficking, said goodbye to dear work friends, and set-off on a trip…one that was originally a two week holiday, but I’ve just extended it to two months now that my job ended.
During the past few weeks every waking hour has been scheduled, plotted, negotiated. In the final days before my trip my alarm clock screamed out at 4:15am for the to-do list to be tackled.
And yet there were so many surprises I couldn’t predict—beautiful and heartbreaking in a dance together.
Friends drenched me with generosity. I won a grand prize at a work raffle and…a dear friend’s father suddenly passed. Rarely can you schedule—control—joy and sorrow.
I may have been gripping a steering wheel, but nonetheless I was still in a round boat with strong currents.
Right now I have no job, no address, and no idea what is next.
But I know I’m in the round boat, ready to be tutored in showing up like the monks—to serve and receive hospitality. Peregrinatio…look out!
My dear friends sent me off with other words and images I hope to blog about as the current leads—Emmanuel, Peregrin falcon, and others!
Cheers to the journey!
Can’t resist the question: What word or image best describes how you’re living life or want to live life at the moment?