Pilgrimage 1: Making Space for My Unreadiness: Start of a Pilgrimage

Entry for 12 May 2014: 

It's pretty hard to make space for heart and soul in a busy life that seems to move faster all the time. But here we are in the middle of night driving south from Tel Aviv Airport to Arad near the Dead Sea. Thirty-five of us set off this morning from our homes in central Scotland to journey here via Istanbul. I can't speak for anybody else but I know I left in a distinctly unready state, not ready for such a journey back to our historical, cultural and spiritual origins. I've been racing around for weeks, ever since  I got back from two weeks dealing with home repairs in Toledo.  It can all feel very fragile and ungrounded at times.  "I'm not ready", something in me cries.  Perhaps we are never ready for such a voyaging back. But here we are, fragile, ungrounded, and unready. 

Of course Israel isn't ready for us either.  In the south, the roads all seem to be under construction.  Like the UK, Israel has a new/old government, but things just seem as broken as ever.  We too live contradictory, broken lives, warning signs flashing in the night as we trundle along, not really knowing where we are going.  We take it on faith, because the future is a place we've never been to before. In the middle of night, it's easy to imagine that some of these roads into the southern wilderness follow the tracks of ancient paths and caravan routes. At least we have company in our journey.