Closing Ceremonies

June 12, 1999

My Dearest Pilgrim Brothers and Sisters, Known and Unknown to Me,

How strange it is to be contemplating Saturday's celebration as Closing Ceremonies. Wasn't it just last month that we were having Opening Ceremonies? Such a year that we have all had!

I think of you all, who are gathered in Capetown, spending your last hours together as a group, knowing that once people begin to depart, it will never be the same again. I had wished at one point to have at least been with you for a few days during this time so I could have seen with my eyes, all of you in one place, at one time! When I first had that thought, I was quite hungry for the sight of you all together - and nothing else would have satisfied. Afterall, I have been a traveler with you for these last months scrambling with e-mails, telephones and faxes, responding to Pilgrims old and new, parents of children, children of parents, organizers, hosts, donors, loved ones and dear ones - some holy and some not so holy.

Somehow, now, it is not so important to be with you physically. You are all in my heart and my heart is with you. It is a feast to envision you all together - with all the complexities of the whole year infused into your systems, with all the weariness and exhaustion that comes from such an arduous undertaking, with all the uncertainty that still remains as each one finds their way to the next steps of journey that must be taken, and with all the joy and love that comes in spite of it all. You are a feast for the soul and spirit - and I feel blessed to have broken bread with you.

I am also thinking of all the Sisters and Brothers, not in Capetown but being fully Pilgrims of the Interfaith Pilgrimage wherever their life path has taken them. You are the ones I have talked to on the phone, have seen in my home or at the Peace Pagoda, or have stayed in touch with via email or fax, or purely through Spirit. We have all given our energies and our heartbeats to the walking prayer that now finds itself concluding in Capetown. Many of us were there from the first days of orientation and gave shape and form to what was to come. Many of us came in along the way, to sustain and carry on that which was begun. There's a great folk tune called"All God's critters got a place in the choir" which goes on to exclaim, "some sing low and some sing higher, some sing out loud on the telephone wires, and some just clap their hands, their paws, or anything they got now..." We are all children of this Pilgrimage. Each of us have our story, our response, our vision, our truth whether we participated for a day, a week, a month or more. It is all part of this deep, profound, complex, confusing, and awesome event that called each one of us to it. We are now called to let our particular voice be heard, to sing out loud the higher and transcendent truth of our experience from whatever place we find ourselves. I know we will all be enhanced and enriched for the sharing of this sacred cup - it will be a blessing for all and I for one will be grateful to partake.

I also feel very deeply blessed that I could be of some service to you, my Sisters and Brothers. It has been my very deep honor and my very deep privilege. It has been an opportunity of a lifetime. Imagine, every new dawn brought with it the opportunity for practice! And every day with the setting sun, I had opportunity to review the progress of that practice.

Of course some days I managed better than others. Now I can tell you that on those days when I wasn't managing so well, I had a name for all of you. Instead of Pil-grims, I would refer to you as those Grim-pills! When it was just a bunch of shenanigans that I was dealing with, you were affectionately known as those dear ol' "grimpils". But when the big, exacerbating moments came you suddenly became those 'Grim-Pills' ! Which is just another way of acknowledging all of our humanness and being grateful for the intervention of the Divine when we least expect it.

And really, being of service to one another is one certain way of serving the Divine. Being of service to you has kept me open to the gifts of the Divine - the gifts of prayer, the gifts of faith, the gifts of joy, the gifts of being able to forbear like Mother Earth throughout the times of grief and grievance. I have learned so much To not have to worry about decision making, but just to learn about being of service, to learn what it means to serve, to come to understand in small ways the immense and multi-ramifications that come when one is in service and practicing. It is infinite, it is profound, it is deep, it is awesome. I am grateful for it all, for all the opportunity, for all the new understandings, for all the learning. It is a gift that I have received and I feel blessed. My cup runneth over. I thank you.

Each one of you has been a blessing in my life and I carry each of you with me every day. I look forward to those gathering times when we can all come back together for reunion and communion. Once you are rested and renewed, re-energized and restored, I can assure you that there is Work ahead in great abundance. None need go away empty-handed.

In the meantime, my prayer for each of you is, that in the journey ahead, you will know: the blessedness of sure and certain faith, the joy of forbearance to tide you through the times of grief and grievance, and the unlimited wellspring of love and compassion that will allow you to embrace everything you encounter with generous heart and wise comprehension. May you always walk, step by step, each step a prayer, each step a miracle.

I hold you in Love and Light, always and I feel viscerally the Love and Light that you have held me in. I thank you most humbly for your gifts to me.

Now I send my love and blessings. In Capetown, the Ceremony of Closing has begun and with it comes the Celebration of Opening- opening to all that is meant to be through the Divine that is manifested in us…

Hugs in abundance to you all,
from the home-base,
elaine Return to Letters from the Pilgrims
Return to The Pilgrimage