Thought for the day, Thursday 6th January

For Those Who Have Far to Travel: An Epiphany Blessing by Jan Richardson,

“If you could see the journey whole,
you might never undertake it,
might never dare the first step that propels you
from the place you have known
toward the place you know not.
Call it one of the mercies of the road:
that we see it only by stages as it opens before us,
as it comes into our keeping,
step by single step.
There is nothing for it but to go,
and by our going take the vows the pilgrim takes:
to be faithful to the next step;
to rely on more than the map;
to heed the signposts of intuition and dream;
to follow the star that only you will recognize;
to keep an open eye
for the wonders that attend the path;
to press on beyond distractions,
beyond fatigue,
beyond what would tempt you from the way.
There are vows that only you will know:
the secret promises for your particular path
and the new ones you will need to make
when the road is revealed
by turns you could not have foreseen.
Keep them, break them, make them again;
each promise becomes part of the path,
each choice creates the road that will take you
to the place where at last you will kneel
to offer the gift most needed—
the gift that only you can give—
before turning to go home by another way.”