The pilgrimage

As a mother, wife, artist, friend, daughter, sister, teacher and individual being, I see my life as a pilgrimage. Like the characters in the Canterbury Tales, I follow a road towards an enlightened end and experience many adventures along the way. My fellow journeymen and women travel through many of the same places encountering the same sites, smells and characters yet each of our stories is uniquely our own. For example, the view of our home decorated in tattered Halloween spook loosely draped across the yard with abandon is much different from the 3 foot vantage point (and perspective) of my 4 year old as it is through my tired eyes as I weigh the benefit of redecorating for Oct. 31 when I will just be cleaning it all up just a day later. My son sees the current decor as perfection and feels nothing but pure excitement about tomorrow's festivities. He does not notice how the rain has soaked the cardboard figures nor how the wind has dislodged most of the props. I, on the other hand, unconsciously think the soggy spider webs and warped skeletons adorning our bushes and front porch declare a lack of commitment to my kids, laziness and poor taste. Fortunately, I walk this path with my son and thus can see this day, our home and our life through his eyes when my own perspective from my 5 feet 6 inch stance is skewed. My kids remind me that I am a pilgrim on a journey, not a part of the scenery.

And so this morning, I awoke early and I thought where will life take me today? Will it be chores, errands, guilt for what I have not accomplished and disappointment about what I did not get to do? Or will it be a day filled with adventure, passion and experience? Hmmmmm- same day, same city, same characters, yet the perspective is polarly different. If I get to choose, and I surprisingly, I do, I'm gonna have to go with adventure. Yeah - that's the one I pick. how exciting! I'm going on an adventure today! I'll let you know how it turns out!