Dear Reader:

Many of you will be traveling elsewhere for Christmas …to families, to see the grandchildren, or perhaps spend a quiet Christmas elsewhere at some vacation spot. Traveling at Christmas time is a large part of the Christmas season today.

But then, when we think about it, traveling “afar” has always been an important part of The Christmas Story.

We have Joseph and Mary traveling to Judea to pay taxes and Mary (ending up) giving birth to Jesus in a manager because there was no room in the inn at Bethlehem. (Today, of course, Mary and Joseph would have been delighted to have had delivered Jesus before the end of the year for deductible reasons!)

Then there are the Magi, the Wise Men, who follow the star, telling of Christ’s birth, coming from the Orient…definitely from afar.

So like today, there were short trips and long trips involved in the Christmas Story…along with a few necessary detours for safety reasons.

When I came across Anne’s and mine favorite Irish poet, John O’Donohue in (Awakin Weekly) and re-read the beautiful poem ” For the Traveler” certain lyrics made me stop and reflect on their meaning.

“For the Traveler”

Every time you leave home,
Another road takes you
Into a world you were never in.

New strangers on other paths await.
New places that have never seen you
Will startle a little at your entry.
Old places that know you well
Will pretend nothing
Changed since your last visit.

When you travel, you find yourself
Alone in a different way,
More attentive now
To the self you bring along,
Your more subtle eye watching
You abroad; and how what meets you
Touches that part of the heart
That lies low at home:

How you unexpectedly attune
To the timbre in some voice,
Opening in conversation
You want to take in
To where your longing
Has pressed hard enough
Inward, on some unsaid dark,
To create a crystal of insight
You could not have known
You needed
To illuminate
Your way.

When you travel,
A new silence
Goes with you,
And if you listen,
You will hear
What your heart would
Love to say.

A journey can become a sacred thing:
Make sure, before you go,
To take the time
To bless your going forth,
To free your heart of ballast
So that the compass of your soul
Might direct you toward
The territories of spirit
Where you will discover
More of your hidden life,
And the urgencies
That deserve to claim you.

May you travel in an awakened way,
Gathered wisely into your inner ground;
That you may not waste the invitations
Which wait along the way to transform you.

May you travel safely, arrive refreshed,
And live your time away to its fullest;
Return home more enriched, and free
To balance the gift of days which call you.

~ John O’Donohue ~

……………………..

This particular line in the poem brought back a memory of a recent family conversation.

A journey can become a sacred thing:
Make sure, before you go,
To take the time
To bless your going forth,
To free your heart of ballast

“To free our hearts of ballast.” Wow! Over Thanksgiving weekend when Ady Grace was climbing the Bradford Pear she suddenly jumped down off the limb and began gathering little stones around the base of the tree. She was so excited about them and asked if she could take them home. Ben and Bekah were shaking their heads in puzzlement. I told Ady Grace she certainly could take as many as she wanted…they were left over pebbles from a potted plant that used to be there…and were used as decorations.

I reminded Ben and Bekah that there are no natural rocks in the lowcountry so lowcountry children are fascinated when they see them. The only true rocks we have were imported along with trading imports (cargo and goods) in the form of ballast rocks.

These rocks were used as ballast in early sailing vessels. In the colonies, the market for manufactured goods from abroad was limited. On the westbound voyage, ships needed weight to lower them in the water to keep them from capsizing; large stones filled the ships’ hold, but after they arrived this ballast was thrown overboard to be replaced by products from the colony.

Soon these dumped British ballast rocks became an environmental problem for the colonies…clogging up harbors and nearby port lands…so landfills were built farther out for the disposal of ballast rocks from English trading vessels.

Today the idea of throwing away “ballast” is a metaphor for letting go of anything that weighs us down. Don’t you think “freeing our heart of ballast” would be a great thing to ask Santa for this year?

Isn’t it a wonderful feeling when we confess our sins and feel God’s forgiveness? It truly is like throwing ballast off the ship and lightening our spiritual lives. What a wonderful Christmas present to ourselves that would be…then we could definitely get in the Christmas “Spirit.”

So until tomorrow:

 May you travel safely, arrive refreshed,
And live your time away to its fullest;
Return home more enriched, and free
To balance the gift of days which call you.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

*Eva Cate gave me my Christmas gift early Sunday… my portrait…I love it! Looks just like me!

* My neighbor Vickie does have a beautiful rock in her front yard…and there is a story behind it. Now we just have to wait until she slows down enough to get it from her…until then the mystery continues.