Back to a place full of memories

Summer is for many a time of pilgrimage and visiting other places. Today’s reading, from Celtic Daily Prayer, Prayers and Readings from the Northumbria Community (which I am finding a wonderful source of inspiration for my humble attempts at a daily spiritual practice) provided an interesting twist on that idea – going back to a place full of memories can be a kind of pilgrimage. That fits in well with my longing to incorporate reverence for people and place into my daily interactions, because it is easy to experience a kind of awe when one visits those places where one lived a long time. I remember particularly the time when Isa and Ivan took my Mom and me on a surprise visit to the house I grew up in. I wish now that I had concentrated more on reverence for the place during that visit, and not focused so much on the dilapidated condition of the house, or the people then living there. Perhaps when we scattered Mom’s ashes on that mountain place in Colorado where she played as a child, that is a more meaningful example of how reverence and memories can intertwine. Anyway, these are thoughts for a hot, hot summer day in the Old Pueblo.