My Blog

Costa Rican Pilgrimage – Day 1

Since retirement, Bernie and I have been on several tours with Road Scholar, formerly Elderhostel. We recently returned from our first tour out of the country. I was the one who wanted to go to Costa Rica because it is a peace country, having abolished its army in 1949 and because the  established a Peace University there which has a commemorative statue of Peace Pilgrim. I thought I’d begin my blog career by sharing some of the journaling I did while on our trip. Following is my first entry written on January 7 while we sat in the Lindberg Terminal, Minneapolis Airport, as I pondered:

“Our adventure is begun. Our destination is still 8.5 hours out, but sitting here I am preparing my heart. I just read the introduction to the book Peace Pilgrim: Her Life and Work in Her Own Words. This trip is for me a pilgimage of peace so I thought it might be a good idea to reread her book which is about her pilgrimage.

“She carried with her on her travels this simple message: “When enough of us find inner peace, our institutions will become more peaceful and there will be no occasion for war.”She was a true pacifist. This reminds me of the hymn we used to sing in church “Let there be peace on earth and let it  begin with me.” I think Peace was trying to say that peace in the world can only be achievd if those who hunger for peace first find peace within.”

I feel Peace’s presence as I begin this journey. I hope to connect ina new way to her beautiful teachings and her life.

Beginnings

This is the beginning of something new in my life. It feels a little like having a column in a newspaper, something I have always thought would be cool but feared big time. But now is the time.

I walked out to greet the sun this morning, a daily ritual of mine. It was slow going because I have this extra bone in my foot that likes to cause me trouble every so often and it is doing so right now. This may seem like a rather mundane thing to be sharing, but really, it has significance to me. Let me explain.

I have a hero. Her name is Peace Pilgrim. She is a real person who walked across the country for peace in the early ’50s. I have read her book, published after her death by her friends. She epitimizes to me what it means to be a peace maker. Well, I guess I have gotten taken in by her journey…the walking journey…thinking how cool it would be to walk the byways of America speaking to folks about what means so much to me. Then God gave me these feet. There are other ways to share a message, I heard. Let your fingers do the walking…remember that message?

Okay! Okay! I got it! So here I am at the starting gate. My son is here from Colorado. He got the blog started. Here you see my first entry. Hello World!