“Because when they looked at her, it occurred to them for the first time in their lives that what’s divine can come in dark skin. You see, everybody needs a God who looks like them, Lily.”-Secret Life of Bees, Sue Monk Kidd
A PBS episode that recently aired that highlighted the beauty of the Black Madonna in Italy. It was a great refresher in having the emotions stirred within about the essence of pilgrimage. Earlier this summer, I went on a pilgrimage with Alessandra Belloni (featured in the PBS special) to visit multiple Black Madonnas in Italy. It was beautiful to witness the devotees that pray, sing, and dance to Her. I observed people having a 1:1 relationship with Her, and it was a reflection of the potential of my relationship with Her.
I’ve been living in America the past six weeks, one hour outside of Los Angeles. Although it is not a busy town, there’s still a fast pace to the American lifestyle of capitalism, consumerism, and hustling to survive. I am surrounded by people who are talking of the struggles of surviving, let alone thriving. It’s easy to lose focus of your values, when you are staying so busy simply to keep up. But watching this episode was a reminder of how my life was earlier this year. There is an importance of slowing down and dropping into the sacred. This is what pilgrimage does.
We may not be able to be on pilgrimage all year. And I’m curious that high could be sustained if it was perpetual. Perhaps we need moments from the peak to recognize the importance and beauty of the sacred. The return in our everyday lives is the challenge to sustain the transformation felt within on pilgrimage, while at home. We may no longer be surrounded by fellow pilgrims, holy shrines, or celebrations that ignite a sense of awe, but can the power of the pilgrimage outshine the monotony and stressors of regular life> Can we stay moved and uplifted, although people around us may want to complain of everyday sorrows?
This is the challenge.
The two, the hero and his ultimate god, the seeker and the found, are thus understood as the outside and the inside of a single, self-mirrored mystery, which is identical with the mystery of the manifest world. The great deed of the supreme hero is to come to the knowledge of this unity in multiplicity and then to make it know.-Joseph Campbell
https://www.pbs.org/video/the-black-madonna-with-marisa-tomei-oACFDQ/
It Only Takes A Smile 