Simple Offerings

I’ve been thinking a lot the last day or two about what I bring to the table. What I mean is this: I spend a lot of time beating myself up. Much of my processing this summer has been to realize and re-realize aspects of myself that aren’t all that healthy, for example my tendency to drive myself into the ground with busyness before I stop for self-care. But as I’ve been living in this short-term intentional community these last few days, I’ve begun to consider the things that I add to a community. Not the sort of things I ‘work at,’ but that I naturally bring because I am who I am.

So when Karen, one of our leaders, asked the other day for several people to act as “supporters” on our 7-mile pilgrimage around the island today, I volunteered. I thought, I’ve led lots of hikes. I’m fit and strong. I can do this! She didn’t give any details in her asking, but I suspected it would be related to helping Timothy, a young man living in the community this week who is blind.  His father David, for this week at least, has served as his eyes. It’s a full-time job, and I’m sure he appreciated the break.

 I was right. I and the five other volunteers paired up to guide Timothy on our off-road pilgrimage today. We took turns being his eyes, telling him about turns in the path, mud puddles and cow pies to avoid, and stood ready to catch him if he stumbled on the steep, wet path.

(I took this picture on what was the steepest bit of the day. Even with two working eyes, it was muddy and slick. Guiding a blind guy down that narrow, rocky path was a challenge.)

But here’s what I discovered: I may be an experienced mountain guide and I may be fairly fit right now, but those things were irrelevant.  I needed a set of working eyes. But more importantly, I needed a willing spirit.  That other stuff really wasn’t important.
In reflecting with Karen after supper just now, I remembered the definition of ‘pilgrimage’ that was given us at the end of our journey around the island. It’s a trip people go on together, yes to a specific place, but for the sake of the experience together as well. I could have walked to those places on my own, as I’m prone to do, but in traveling with a group of forty-odd people, but then in a smaller nucleus of “Team Timothy” as well, I had a different experience altogether. This day’s pilgrimage, for me, was about giving the simple abilities I have to someone who doesn’t.