Inner Beauty Pilgrimage to the Sacred-Ordinary Everywhere
In the Spring of 2015 I launched a successfully funded Kickstarter campaign to take the Inner Beauty Project on Pilgrimage to the Sacred-Ordinary Everywhere:
Thanks to that wonderful support, I have been living out my dream of taking the Inner Beauty Pilgrimage on the roadthis Fall. Below is the project itinerary, which I'll be updating as it unfolds:
EAST COAST PILGRIMAGE (September- October 2015)
EAST COAST PILGRIMAGE (September- October 2015)
- September 4th First Friday / Open Studio/Pilgrimage Launch / Inner Beauty Passport unveiling at the studio of the amazing Larissa King in White River Junction, VT.
- September 14th Heart Instructions Mini-Book workshop at Studio 550 Arts in Manchester, NH. Staying with Couchsurfing Emily.
- September 15th-17th in Brooklyn & New York City. Visiting Elana at her What I Live by Kiosk in Union Square. Old Friends Inner Beauty Treatments with Louise, Miles, and Jon. Staying with my friends Elizabeth & Alan, and their little girl.
- September 17th -19th in Philadelphia, PA, for a public event in Clark Park. Staying with my college friend Nico.
- September 20th-23rd in Baltimore, MD for Sunday Farmer's Market Bazaar and participation in the Long-Term Meditators Study at Johns Hopkins Medical Institute (talk about Inner Beauty Treatments!) Staying with my brother Adrian and Kate, and my fabulous nephews.
- September 23rd-25th Camping in Shenandoah National Park for Appalachian Trail Inner Beauty Treatment.
- September 25th & 26th in Blacksburg, VA. Staying with Couchsurfing Jen & Pierre & their three daughters.
- September 26th & 27th in Roanoke, VA for the Flatline the Pipeline Festival. Staying with Couchsurfing Angela & Bradley, and their kids.
- September 27th & 28th in Knoxville, TN. Staying with Couchsurfing Jing.
- September 28th-October 2nd in Sewanee, TN for public event with the University of the South's student-run Health & Wellness house, visit to Buddhism & the Environment class, and visit to meditation PE class. Staying with my friends Helen & Archie & their kids.
- October 2nd-5th in Atlanta, GA for Artist's talk & Inner Beauty event at {Poem} 88 and 1/2 day retreat with Red Clay Sangha. Staying with my artist friend Susie & her husband.
- October 5th-7th in Greensboro, NC for Inner Beauty in the Art Truck at UNCG and an artist's talk on campus. Staying with my artist friend Barbara.
- October 7th stopping in Charlottesville, VA for lunch with my new artist friend Sharon.
- October 7th-9th in Chambersburg, PA for a public event at Wilson College. Staying with my friend Mary Beth & her family.
- October 9th-10th in Rhinebeck, NY. Staying with Couchsurfing Geraldine, who's hosting an Inner Beauty House Party.
- October 10th. Back home to Lebanon, NH
- October 27th Arrive at SFO. Take Super-Shuttle straight to The City Waves 5 Rhythms dance class in the Presidio. Dance my heart out! Staying with my friends Johanna, Stefano, Nico & Asa.
- October 28th Midday Inner Beauty presentation for Bay Area Legal Recruitment Association meeting on the theme of Recharge Yourself. Travel to Livermore. Evening meditation group. Staying with my friends Khabira and Chuck.
- October 29th Inner Beauty Workshop at Livermore Public Library. Return to Bay Area. Evening 5 Rhythms dance at Deep Dive Oakland. Dance my heart out some more!
- October 30th Expedition to Ecstatic Dance Marin in Fairfax with dancing pal Johanna. Burmese tea salad! Costumes!
- October 31st Halloween Darshan Inner Beauty Treatment in Berkeley, distributing treats to hundreds (or maybe millions) of trick-or-treaters at my friends Michelle, Robert, Q & Ion's house. Staying with Michelle, Robert, Q & Ion.
- November 1st Sunday morning Soul Sanctuary Dance in Berkeley. Such a sweet space! Afternoon Inner Beauty Tea Party in SF at Johanna & Stefano's place.
- November 2nd return home to Lebanon, NH.
Pilgrimage: A Personal History
In my idea, and my experience, a pilgrimage is a journey undertaken with an itinerary that comes from somewhere besides simply personal preference. With pilgrimage comes a sense of trust: trusting in the journey itself; in the Universe to teach me & bring me the encounters & experiences I need; trusting in my intuitions & my ability to participate meaningfully in the journey I'm undertaking. Improvisation becomes really important, too: I have no idea how I am going to get to my next destination, nor where I am going to sleep, or how I will food to eat. Consider the lilies of the field...
When I was 19, I undertook the Camino de Santiago with some friends. The first thing that happened is that we pitched camp on top of a hill on the French side of the Pyrenees, and then a gale blew up, and we spent that whole night pushing with the weight of our whole bodies against the walls of our collapsed tent to (as it seemed like to us) keep from drowning in it. The lightning would flash, and we would see our cookpot whizzing away in the wind. In the morning, an old goat-lady rescued us, allowing us to dry our sleeping bags & our sleepless bodies by her smoky fire. The whole rest of that trip, my sleep smelled of goat.
Even though I was a disorganized pilgrim, with a tendency to complain about blisters & no particular spiritual goal except to see beautiful churches, the journey had a profound effect on me. I remember relaxing into donkey-mode: nothing to do but plod on, day after day, village after village, feeling the body get stronger and the mind get less cluttered. My friends and I slept at the edges of fields, under olive trees, and in church hostels. People were often kind to us, offering big bowls of bread-and-onion soup, or mint to cool our mouths on hot days. Some people weren't kind at all, but we were never going to see them again, so that was somehow OK, too. When the journey ended, I was surprised by how little enthusiasm I felt for going back to a complicated, sedentary life - even though it was a life I loved in many ways.
When I was 19, I undertook the Camino de Santiago with some friends. The first thing that happened is that we pitched camp on top of a hill on the French side of the Pyrenees, and then a gale blew up, and we spent that whole night pushing with the weight of our whole bodies against the walls of our collapsed tent to (as it seemed like to us) keep from drowning in it. The lightning would flash, and we would see our cookpot whizzing away in the wind. In the morning, an old goat-lady rescued us, allowing us to dry our sleeping bags & our sleepless bodies by her smoky fire. The whole rest of that trip, my sleep smelled of goat.
Even though I was a disorganized pilgrim, with a tendency to complain about blisters & no particular spiritual goal except to see beautiful churches, the journey had a profound effect on me. I remember relaxing into donkey-mode: nothing to do but plod on, day after day, village after village, feeling the body get stronger and the mind get less cluttered. My friends and I slept at the edges of fields, under olive trees, and in church hostels. People were often kind to us, offering big bowls of bread-and-onion soup, or mint to cool our mouths on hot days. Some people weren't kind at all, but we were never going to see them again, so that was somehow OK, too. When the journey ended, I was surprised by how little enthusiasm I felt for going back to a complicated, sedentary life - even though it was a life I loved in many ways.
A couple of years later, I was awarded a fellowship from the Chase Coggins Memorial Fund to travel & photograph the 88-temple Shikoku Pilgrimage in Japan. This was so different for me! For one thing - I went alone. No more lively arguments about when to start walking, and no more convivial meals at day's end. For another, I spoke no Japanese. And for a third, unlike the linear Camino with its clear endpoint, the Shikoku pilgrimage is a big circle, or maybe a spiral. People travel it many, many times over the course of their lives. It goes all the way around the island of Shikoku, and so even as you finish one circuit, the awareness of many more possible circuits is right there in front of you. The end is the beginning. It's very Buddhist!
Those two journeys early in life somehow established me in a pattern that I am still learning from to this day, many years and journeys later. When I think of pilgrimage, I think of the currents of intention pulling all of us this way, or that. I think of surrendering, and of walking relatively unencumbered in this world.
