Return To Mayo

This Sunday my wife and I make our return to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. We go to give comfort, companionship and advice to a dear family member.

Chihuly sculpture at the Mayo

I have come to see these trips as a spiritual pilgrimage, as all acts of empathy and kindness end up being. Walking among the sick, the healing, the grieving, the hopeful and the faithful transforms your perceptions of who populates the world we live in. Often we avoid hospitals, or any other place that reminds us of our fragility and mortality. We forget the sublime gift our limited time here is, and as a consequence we often forget why we have religion at all.

In a very real sense religion is about how we choose to understand the most important events in our life. Birth, death, charity, compassion, sacrifice, joy, love, home, community and sustenance. Do we see a distant father? A loving mother? A family of ancestors? A kind teacher? A great warrior? It all comes down to what values we place importance in and what kind of understanding we want to have of those moments that seem to transcend our ability to explain in simple terms what we feel and hope for.

There is a good chance I will be unable to update on Monday (but you never know), but I will definitely be back with my regular blogging antics on Tuesday. I wish you all well. Wish me good journey, and I’ll be sure to return the favor on your pilgrimage.

Tags: Neopaganism