The Serene Traveler

It’s April and I must admit that I have been enjoying my fair share of spring sunshine and warm Florida breezes.  So you can imagine my shock when I realized that I will be traveling to Wisconsin this weekend and it is supposed to SNOW!  Yes… that’s right… S-N-O-W!  My toes started getting frosty the minute I read that weather report and suddenly this trip that I had been looking forward to started to sound like more of a challenge.  Out of the blue, I started to make multiple mental lists of just where I had stored my winter coat and what sweater should I be sure to pack.  Don’t they know up in Wisconsin that it’s SPRING and not winter?

But as I started fretting over my cold nose and frigid feet, I realized that this one little piece of information had upset my whole outlook.  What was supposed to be a spirit-filled weekend with some wonderful women of the LaCrosse Synodical Women’sOrganization had taken a turn and I didn’t like it!

So, I cast about for something to help me reorient my thinking AND my perspective… and got out my almost forgotten little book Everyday Serenity: Meditations for People Who Do Too Much by David Kundtz.  It was all there… “Prepare yourself mentally to accept and deal with challenges as a normal part of travel.”

But what I thought was of more importance was his concept of “traveling Stillpoints”… doesn’t that have a nice ring to it?  The concept of being still in the midst of traveling…  Here’s what he wrote:

“Generously place quiet moments in your traveling time.  These traveling Stillpoints might focus on your journey’s purpose, stretching and remembering, or mentally rehearsing how you want to feel when you arrive… How we travel is how we’ll arrive.”

Ruminate on that last thought a minute… “How we travel is how we’ll arrive.”  Somehow I think this is a lesson about more than just traveling… hmmm?

Okay, I get the message, Lord!  The journey that I’m on is not just for this weekend.  I am a traveler throughout the entirety of my life.  So if it is HOW I travel that determines how I arrive… then I want to choose that less worn path of faithfulness and contemplation.  I want to be the serene traveler… but I can only get there with YOUR help.

These everyday epiphanies take me unaware… but I am grateful for them just the same.  You’ll be happy to know that because of this one little notion … this small redirection of my thinking, my attitude has officially been adjusted… and I guess that new, apple green trench coat that I got for the trip won’t hurt either!